Bound (Dark Reflections Volume 1)

Chapter 27

Alec Graves
The Express Rail Line
Southern Utah

It had turned out that Brandon had in fact missed the big arteries in my arm, and the small ones had mostly healed when I'd shifted back to human form. It had been too dark to see what happened to Brandon after the girder scraped him off of the top of the train, but I had a feeling that he'd survived somehow.

One thing that the fight had convinced me of was that Brandon had been hiding the full extent of his ability for years. It was terrifying to think of a hybrid durable enough to survive colliding head-on with something at more than seventy miles per hour like that, but I was pretty sure I hadn't seen the last of him.

As the train continued on into the night I slowly made my way up to where Rachel was huddled between two of the cars. We then found a cargo car and I used my hybrid claws to punch through the lock and let us in.

Reception for my cell phone had been much spottier than I'd counted on, but I still managed to get a series of texts through. The first one was to Mother asking her to go get Donovan if nobody else had found him yet and then I sent a couple to Jasmin with instructions on how we were going to meet back up. Once that was done I turned my phone back off and swapped sim cards again.

Rachel and I passed a quiet hour or so huddled on a couple of cardboard boxes before it was time for me to go back outside again. The best use of the lull would have been to start working through the accounts from Kaleb's safe and get as much money transferred away as possible, but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the tablet out after having come so close to dying.

The air was colder when I finally opened the door to the cargo car and worked my way to the top of the car Rachel was in. It took only a few minutes before Jasmin and the others were visible. They were strung out in a line almost a hundred yards apart from each other just as I'd instructed.

There was a bit of a grade on this section of the track, but nothing like the one that Rachel and I had used to get on the train. By my best estimate we were still doing in excess of forty miles an hour, but that was okay, James and the girls had their instructions and everything should work.

I climbed back down so that my feet were on the bottom rung of the ladder and then wrapped my right arm around another rung. Even after such a short time my arm was mostly healed, but I decided not to risk opening the wound back up. I'd already lost a lot of blood today.

I swung around so that I was looking down the track towards Jasmin and then waved until she saw me and waved back. She started a slow jog as soon as she saw me, and then sped up to an all-out sprint as I reached her.

"Jump on three!"

The count went smoothly and Jasmin jumped right on schedule. I grabbed her arms, plucking her out of the air and then pulling her over to the ladder so that she could get her feet under her.

"Rachel is in this car. Go ahead and go in so that there is room for the others."

Jasmin shook her head and anchored herself similarly to what I'd done.

"You're going to need help with James. Vincent beat the crap out of him. He's standing there, but you're not going to get any kind of speed or life out of him, it's pretty much going to be lifting dead weight."

I grunted in response and then it was time to pick Jess up. Things went even more smoothly then they had with Jasmin and as soon as I got ahold of her wrist Jasmin helped me lift her up onto the ladder.

Jessica climbed over the top of me so that I was sandwiched between the two of them. I took a deep, preparatory breath and had a second to revel in Jasmin and Jessica's scent. It was like being home again, but not the home I actually remembered from my childhood—a home where people I loved would take incredible risks to protect me and my sister.

An instant later we'd caught up with James and it was every bit as bad as I was afraid it would be. James tried to jump, I saw him go white from the effort, but he barely got his feet off of the ground.

I grabbed his outstretched hand and both of my arms nearly ripped out of their sockets. I think James screamed, but it was hard to tell over my own cry of pain, and then the girls had ahold of his arm and they were helping me pull him up to the ladder.

A few minutes later we were all inside of the cargo car with Rachel. Rachel hugged everyone and then gave them all a big, tearful thank you. We made James as comfortable as possible on a makeshift bed of boxes and then once he was asleep and Jessica was talking to Rachel, Jasmin turned to me.

"So what next, oh criminal mastermind?"

I fished the tablet and the ledger out of the backpack and then tossed the rest to her. She let out a low whistle as I hit the power button on the tablet and found that it did indeed still work.

"That's a lot of cash."

"A fifth of it belongs to you; don't go spending it all in one place."

She shook her head. "This wasn't about the money for any of us."

"I know it wasn't, but I need to know that you guys are all taken care of in case something happens to me."

I fired up the wireless connection and started looking for the login information for the first bank before I realized that I hadn't answered her question.

"We'll ride the train for another few hours and then we'll get off somewhere around Salt Lake City. I haven't had a chance to scout a spot yet, but if we jump off the same way that we got out of that helicopter we can afford to exit at a higher rate of speed than we got on at. Some of it will depend on how James is feeling by then."

Jasmin nodded, but she didn't seem satisfied with my answer.

"What about after that?"

"Well, we're going to spend some time consolidating all of the Graves resources that I can get my hands on, and then we're going to start a war. I'm going to do whatever it takes to bring down Kaleb and the Coun'hij."

--The Story Continues in Hunted (Dark Reflections Volume 2)--

Thank you very much for reading Alec's story! If you're curious about the blonde girl he keeps seeing in his dreams, you'll want to pick up Hunted (http://deanwrites.com/reflections-series/hunted/) the second Dark Reflections book.

I did something a little unusual with Bound, and the rest of the Dark Reflections books, in that they represent an alternate timeline from my Reflections books. If you're curious what Alec's life would be like if Kaleb hadn't joined the Coun'hij, and if the blonde girl had moved to Sanctuary rather than remaining just a distant figure from his dreams, you'll want to pick up Torn (available for free to readers who sign up for my mailing list - http://deanwrites.com/sign-up/) or read Broken (available on Wattpad).

I've also written another set of Reflections books (under the name Eldon Murphy) featuring a different set of characters who will eventually meet up with Alec, Jasmin and the rest. Look for The Greater Darkness here on Wattpad or free at any major ebook retailer.

Lastly, I have a 4-book epic fantasy series (The Guadel Chronicles) that may interest you. Frozen Prospects (the first book to that series) is free on all major ebook retailers as well as being available here on Wattpad.

Thanks,

Dean

P.S. if you enjoyed Bound and could leave a quick review for it on Amazon or whatever retailer you normally buy books from, I would very much appreciate it!