After sliding the door closed, she followed Robert and the porter only a few cars down, and then the porter led them down a set of metal stairs outside.
That was the first action she found out-of-place. She'd expected him to lead them into the station where they could board the Express from a well-lit, cavernous area and take a quick look at the cabin.
But they were outside in the night, gazing across multiple sets of tracks.
"That one," the porter said, pointing to the left up ahead.
He led them along their own train, and Eleisha suddenly didn't care for all the shadows and black spaces in between the cars. Was it common for Amtrak personnel to escort passengers right along the tracks like this? The situation felt wrong. She took her first close look at the porter. He was thirty years old, average in weight and height, wearing a wedding ring and no coat. The night air was cool… and he was sweating.
They were almost to the front of the train they'd come in on. The Express to Portland was one track over, just up ahead.
She reached out and tried to pick up any surface thoughts coming off the porter, and she almost tripped upon feeling the waves of fear inside him.
At least I can make the house payment. Laura won't even know I lost the money. I couldn't just pass up two grand.
Someone had paid him two thousand dollars? For what?
They were passing the front of their own train.
The night air by the first car seemed to move, and she saw the glint.
"Robert!" she called in warning.
He was directly ahead of her, and she shoved him. The blade slashed down, catching the back of her hand and the top of Robert's shoulder in the same swing. He cried out as he fell sideways. Eleisha fell to the ground on the momentum of her push.
She rolled, looking up in disbelief and shock to see Julian standing over her in a long black coat with a sword in his hand.
A wall of fear hit her with full force.
Wade looked down at his watch and shifted uncomfortably.
"They've been gone almost ten minutes" he said. "We're going to miss the Express." Where were they?
Philip lifted the sliding shutter over the window and peered out. "Something's wrong."
"Maybe she's still arguing with the porter," Rose said. "She looked so angry about that mix-up."
Philip looked back at Wade. "Maybe we should just go?"
"No," Wade said, opening his bag, strapping on his gun, and pulling on his jacket. "You stay with Rose. I'll just take a look. They must be on their way back. It's better if we can make the switch all together."
He slipped out into the hallway, closed the door, and made his way down the train. A few cars down, he came to an empty car with an open doorway.
Moving to the steps, he peered outside. Looking to the right, toward the end of the train, he was surprised to see how far the cars reached behind him, all the way into the large train station, which appeared to be a good four-minute walk away. He couldn't even see the end cars. Would Eleisha have gone that far? He didn't think so. Tracks stretched in both directions. He wasn't sure where to look.
His growing discomfort turned to anxiety.
Where had the porter taken Eleisha and Robert?
Jasper walked into a bathroom stall of the men's room inside the train station. He wasn't crazy about the trench coat, but he liked the new sword hidden beneath. It was a lot lighter than Julian's.
He only waited a few seconds, and then Mary appeared.
He was relieved to see her.
"Julian says only two of them came out," she said, tilting her magenta-tinted head, "but one is that Robert guy he's after, and the other one's Eleisha, so it's okay. He's waiting up ahead now-found a good hiding spot. The other three are still on the train from San Francisco, and it's about to pull out, so they're going to get stuck if they're too scared to get off by themselves. He says you should get on and look for a chance to kill one or two of them alone if you can break em up. He said that train is heading east toward someplace called Bend. They'll panic when they figure out Eleisha and Robert aren't coming back to get them… and that they're going the wrong way."
Jasper blinked a few times.
Julian wanted him to get on the train and start hunting on his own?
He thought about this. He knew he'd screwed up badly back at the station, and he was still pretty shaken by Julian's reaction, but the payoff was worth it. He just had to prove himself.
"Which train?"
They all looked the same, and the station reader board was confusing.
"When you go out of the men's room, just turn left. You'll step right on."
"I don't have a ticket."
"It's all right. You just have to hide someplace and avoid the ticket collectors."
The thought was kind of exciting. "Okay."
"I'm going to check in with Julian, and then I'll come find you again."
He nodded, slipped out of the men's room, turned left, and got on the train. Once again, he was starting to feel like someone right out of a movie. It was his first time on a train.
Pretty cool.
Eleisha fought the overwhelming fear, knowing she could resist it as she had once before.
She had to press her thoughts into his, get control of him, but the waves kept coming until she felt sick, and she couldn't focus.
Almost the instant Julian completed his first swing, he swung upward again and took off the porter's head. The sight of the body falling and blood spurting from the stump shocked her. Too many events were occurring at once. Robert was trying to crawl up and unzip his bag, but his shoulder was bleeding and his expression was locked in fear-and he'd never felt Julian's gift like this before.
Julian raised the sword and was about to rush toward Robert again, when Eleisha gathered any scraps of control she had and used her mind to push into his thoughts with a single word.
Stop!
He sidestepped in shock, and his dark eyes widened. Instead of swinging the sword, he kicked her, and she rolled. Dust flooded her mouth and she tried to push up to all fours. The pain in her side made her cry out at once.
Then Julian was gone, and Robert was on his feet with a long polished sword in his right hand.
He didn't even look back at Eleisha before he bolted forward. Was he trying to run down Julian?
"Robert!"
She struggled up to her feet and stumbled after him, but he didn't go far.
"Which way?" he shouted. "Which way did he run?"
She hadn't seen Julian vanish, and she reached out with her thoughts, trying to pick up anything. "I don't know!"
"Get over here! Stay away from the front of that train."
Confused for a second, she saw all the nooks and shadows around the front cars-with no overhead lighting.
She ran to him, half limping, worried Julian might have broken her ribs. Robert's head was moving back and forth. They were now closer to the passenger cars near the end of the Portland Express. He looked at one open door with a floodlight above. The train was about to pull out.
"There," he barked.
"What? No, the others are still on the first train! We can't just leave them."
"Eleisha, I can't sense him. I don't know where he is. We have to stay in the light!" He glanced back once more down into the shadows where Julian had been hiding. Then, without warning, he bent down rapidly, reached around the back of her thighs, picked her up, and ran for the open door of the Portland Express.
"No!"
She fought him but couldn't even make him slow down. In desperation, she reached out with her thoughts, trying to make a connection to Wade.
Stay where you are! Julian is outside! We're on the other train. Wade! There's nothing I can do. Stay out of the shadows. Find a way to meet us back at the church.