The Dark Saviour [14]

Chapter 16

Tanya looked this close to sewing Tom's lips shut so he would be quiet. He had been prattling on and on the entire five-hour trip. "If you don't shut up, I will turn your vocal cords into guitar strings."

Tom, seeing that she was quite serious, snapped his jaw shut. The train whistled as they pulled into the Santander station, people pushing and shoving to get off the locomotive. "Grab onto my arm so we don't get separated," she instructed, his grip tight on her upper arm. 

Something in her peripheral vision kept catching her eye, then disappearing when she glanced over. "What are you looking at?" Tom questioned.

"Nothing," she said forcefully. "It's nothing."

He glanced over to where she was looking, but there was nothing there, just as she said. He frowned but dropped the subject. Tanya spoke rapidly with the ticket woman, words blending and he was only able to figure out a few of them. Money exchanged hands, and soon enough, they were on a ramp, waiting to board.

"Please remove your shoes," the security guard droned, looking obviously bored. Grumbling about the ridiculousness of the situation, Tom did so and placed them in a bin, along with the belongings he was carrying.

Letting Tanya take reign of the communication since he didn't speak Spanish, he studied the woman in front of him instead. Something was off about her.

She looked like herself, with the same inky black hair, the same emerald-colored eyes, the same dark olive skin. She was a few inches taller, a lot more filled out, but he couldn't quite place what was different.

Tanya clicking her fingers in front of his face, pointing to his shoes snapped him back to reality. He stuffed his feet inside, hauling a bag onto his shoulder and following her inside. "You're staring," she called from in front of him.

"Just keeping track of you," he lied smoothly. "And trying to figure out what's changed."

"I'm taller, weigh more, and am less stupid. That's what's changed," she snipped. "We're in here." She shoved open the door, sighing as they stepped into the unbearably hot cabin. With a wave of his hand, he was in shorts and a t-shirt, instead of the jeans and thick jacket he had been wearing on the train.

Tanya simply pulled her shirt off, revealing far too many scars and a bralette underneath. Seeing the look on her face, she scoffed. "You're staring as if you've never seen a woman with her shit off," she commented, and he flushed slightly, covering it with an illusion.

"It's more the scars." He set down the bag, stepping closer. "What happened to you, Tanya?" His voice was quiet, soft.

"Shit," she summarized. "Look, I don't go digging around in my past. If I did, I'd never leave."

Something inside him ached slightly. Her face was even as always, but there was an unmistakably haunted look in her eyes. "I can understand that."

"No, you can't."