The Night Train

The Night Train

A Sanguine Universe short story of sacrifice and sin

By James Golden

It came slowly, patiently. The steady, unending rattle of the train filtered its way through Iah's thoughts, unraveling the majesty of that ripe, green world and its glorious, unearthly arena. It pulled her from her dreams, and, with a slight hiccup, a rough patch of track that jostled her upright, thrust Iah firmly into consciousness.

Her head had been leaning against a cool, silk curtain covering a dark window. She yanked the curtain back and stared wide-eyed at the passing European countryside, her thoughts racing nearly as fast as the train. A dark-haired girl in a revealing white dress stared back at her. Tears were beginning to form in her hazel-brown eyes.

Other than her first name, Iah had no idea who she was or why she was on a train. She blinked hard and squared her jaw, then turned to look around the cabin. She had to fight back the scream building in her throat.

There were four other girls with her in the luxurious redwood cabin, and someone or something had brutalized them. Each of them was wearing a low-cut white dress. The two blonde girls, both around fifteen Iah guessed, lay sprawled on a queen-sized bed. Blood stained their dresses and the torn, cream-colored sheets. Thankfully, their chests rose and fell in a gentle rhythm.

Despite the bruises and lacerations on their necks, they seemed to be only unconscious.

The other two, girls with raven-black hair like her's, lay dead by the cabin door. Their necks were torn open, as if by a bear, and their wide, glassy eyes stared up at the ceiling. One of the girls' lips was still twisted in a smile. She'd died happy. Somehow, the thought horrified Iah.

A full-length mirror hung by the cabin door, pristine, save for a long red handprint trailing down its gilded, polished surface. She crept to it, unable to keep her eyes from her reflection despite the fear pulsing towards her heart. Who was she? How had she gotten here?

The girl that stared back at her was slender but powerful. She had a gymnast's body and a martial artist's hips, though, at the moment, Iah couldn't recall a single move or technique. Her makeup was cute and perfect, designed to make her look younger than she was and she shuddered involuntarily. The white dress she wore barely covered her butt, and the sight of her long legs made her feel somewhat exposed.

Interestingly, she could walk fine in the white stilettos. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

A howl of laughter from outside the cabin floated through and Iah froze. There were other people on this train. She put her ear to the door. She could hear chuckles and conversation in a language she didn't understand. There were at least five nearby, all men.

Behind her, one of the blonde girls stirred on the bed. She mumbled in her sleep and started to thrash.

"Demone!" The girl said. "Vampiro!"

A chill raced down Iah's spine. Another peal of laughter, followed by the slow giggle of delirious girls.

Iah looked down at her white dress? Was she destined to be a victim?

Reflexively, Iah balled a fist, surprised at the power she felt in her arm. She made eye contact with the woman in the mirror and grit her teeth. There was a fire in her belly that felt like anger and it burned away the fear in her system. Her reflection stared back, powerful, immutable, beautiful.

Determined to get answers, Iah gently leaned her body against the cabin door and slid it open. Low orchestral music swept into her cabin from the nearby lounge. She'd hardly been able to hear it when the door was shut.

She peeked her head and one leg out of the cabin door, poised to run if necessary, and swiveled to get a bead on the situation in the hallway. Her eyes went wide.

The girl behind her was still mumbling in Italian, wriggling on the bed as though caught in a fever dream. Though the rational part of Iah's mind wanted to discount her words, she could not deny the scene before her.

Seated on red, gold embroidered cushions and in lavish armchairs were four of the most beautiful men Iah had ever laid eyes on. Dressed in slick business suits of black, grey, blue, and white, the four men had short, tidy hair, square jaws, and pale, almost porcelain-colored skin. In sharp contrast to their angelic, physical features, each of the businessmen had dark eyes that blazed with an inner malignance, a quality that Iah immediately found predatory and unnaturally appealing.

The four men each had girls on their laps. Like Iah, the girls wore revealing white and had varying shades of dark hair. Unlike Iah, they were covered in wounds, puncture marks, and slashes that dripped fresh blood onto their expensive dresses. They swooned and giggled while the men laughed, and then, in a sudden, horrific turn, the girls gasped as the men tore into their throats with knife-like teeth, gnashing into their necks like a school of piranhas.

Iah gasped. The sound leapt from her lips and her wild eyes settled on an enormous man at the back of the train car.

In a flash of movement, what she had thought to be a black and white armchair sequestered in shadow, rose to its feet with inhuman alacrity. Bright, beady eyes flared to life in the darkness and the thing smiled, its bloody jowls shaking. The suit the huge man wore was too small for his bulbous waist and the buttons on his exposed, gore-stained undershirt threatened to break at any moment.

As his fellows sank their teeth deeper into the girls, driving them down to nearby sofas and couches, the fat man rose to his full height and stepped into the light on two needle-thin legs. The thing, Iah refused to call it a man, looked at her through a monocle attached to a thin gold chain, and then shot towards her cabin faster than was possible for someone so large.

Iah dashed back inside and shut the door, her heart hammering with adrenaline. Something had clipped the sliding door, a small thing, strapped to her thigh. She felt it there suddenly, a strange, familiar presence, but before she had a chance to investigate, fat, clammy hands slammed against the cabin.

Iah backed up, disturbing the bodies of the dead girls in her haste, and nearly fell over as one rolled with her momentum, its lifeless arm flopping against her leg.

The cabin door screamed as the metal bent in the grip of the rotund monster. Iah had a long look at the thing's fat, sausage-like fingers, each adorned with hefty gold rings and priceless gems before it crunched into the metal door like it was a sheet of aluminum and wrenched it open.

With nowhere to run, Iah rose to her full height and balled her small fists, her eyes smoldering with fury and disgust. The fear within her fell to the wayside, usurped by adrenaline that shook through her capable limbs.

In the well-lit, cabin, it was clear to see that the creature before her was not human, but a gross caricature of one. It bulged from its business suit in unnatural proportions and leered down at her.

His name was David Magnate and he was the ninth wealthiest oil tycoon in the world. The information came to Iah the second she looked into his beady black eyes, though how she knew, she could not say.

David centered his attention on Iah. He stepped over the corpses of the other girls as if they were merely obstructions and scuttled forward until he towered over her. He smelled of oil, spice, thick cigar smoke, and something else, an older, more subtle scent, like mold.

Iah's lips curled involuntarily but she didn't shirk away. In fact, she was surprised to note that she felt no fear at all. Anger and disgust had done completely away with it.

David smiled wide and licked his lips, catching some of the blood on his stretching jowls. His tongue was unnaturally long and purple.

"You're a fucking monster," Iah said, eyes blazing.

David Magnate squinted at her and then laughed. His massive belly and bloated pelvis region shook as he guffawed. The sight made Iah's stomach turn.

"You've got more fight in you than the others. A stronger mind, perhaps?" David said, his voice thin and nasally. "I like that. We picked you up in Paris and brought you aboard. You were fun then, so why the change of pace? You had good food and better wine. You danced and laughed with my coterie of sinners. A night of extravagance. Now, I think it's time you pay for those luxuries, don't you?"

Though she didn't understand why Iah found herself nodding along with the monster's words. He was strangely persuasive, but there was another reason too. Iah had a nagging feeling that this thing masquerading as a man was the reason she was on this train. She knew his name! She knew more about him than she did herself. That had to be proof of something.

David reached out and snatched her by the arm. His hand was cold and somewhat clammy, as though he was struggling to regulate his body temperature. His fingers closed completely around Iah's arm, encircling it like a gilded vice.

"Come, little bird. Join the party," David said and led Iah over the bodies of the dead girls and out into the train lounge proper.

He led Iah past the four frenzied men, turning sideways at times to suck in his globular gut lest he knock over lamps and bottles of wine.

One by one, the businessmen tore themselves from their feast of flesh at David's passing. Gasps of ecstasy and moans of hunger unending followed Iah. The beautiful men with devil eyes and suits stained red with gore lifted and rose to their feet. Each of them stared hollow-eyed at her.

Stone-faced, Iah took in the scene of death around her. Each of the girls was dead. The train lounge played orchestral music in stunning surround sound, though the music did nothing to move or soothe her.

David sat down and plucked Iah from her feet as though she were nothing more than a doll and sat her on his lap.

"What was your name again? Iah, was it?" David asked his jeweled hands low on her hip. "You are going to be my special treat."

Iah said nothing. She glared up at David as if he was trash personified. She didn't understand why, but something told her she was right where she needed to be.

"Now, let's see. A delicious morsel like yourself has so many delicacies to offer. Where should I draw the first meal?" David asked, his meaty hand working its way up her thigh.

As he probed, the monster's horrible long tongue licked at Iah's cheek and neck. Iah closed her eyes and grit her teeth.

Suddenly, the creature's jeweled fingers closed over the small, square object strapped to her leg.

"What's this?" David hissed.

Iah didn't answer. She didn't know.

David's black eyes burned red. He balled a meaty fist and Iah distinctly heard two of his rings crack under the pressure. In a flash of motion, David tore at her dress, ripping the fabric from her hips to reveal a small, blue iPod taped to her inner thigh.

Iah felt exposed but oddly comfortable. Her nudity didn't bother her, though surrounded by monsters, Iah supposed she should feel vulnerable. Instead, in only a pair of lacy white underwear and the torn remnants of the dress, Iah smirked.

"What is this?" David demanded again.

He ripped the iPod and duct tape brutally from her skin, leaving behind a line of red welts, and held it out as evidence. A pair of air-pods were taped to the back, and someone had scrawled the words "play-time" in English in permanent marker. Iah wasn't sure if the writing was hers or if it belonged to someone else.

"I don't know," Iah said. "I don't remember anything. Not Paris. Not dancing. Nothing. I don't even know where this train is going."

David Magnate frowned. He tore the AirPods from the back of the device and tossed them to the side. The creature in the white business suit cackled.

"The Night Train goes all night long, baby," He said, licking his fangs.

Still frowning, David tossed the iPod to the monster in the black suit, who caught it deftly. "Work the device, Viktor," David said moodily. He looked down at Iah like a disapproving uncle. "I want to see what mysteries our little bird has brought us."

Iah squirmed on David's lap, but his grip was iron. He leaned in uncomfortably close, his breath moist and tepid on her neck.

"I'm used to my girls coming to me a little fuzzy. It helps the process go smoothly. I reward my thralls handsomely for their work in human trafficking. I have a type you see. Not just any old blood will do," David said, his eyes fixed on Viktor as he plugged in the iPod. "This little game of yours is new. Are you a spy sent by one of the other bloodlines?"

"No," Iah answered immediately.

David grumbled and leaned back in what Iah realized was a massive throne, built specifically to support this monster's weight.

"No matter," David Magnate said, gripping her thigh. "We'll find out all about you soon enough."

David stewed in his thoughts. He didn't know why, but something about this bothered him. It felt like a gradual loss of control, the relinquishment of power to the unknown. Not only that, but he'd heard something about a situation like this happening in The States. Something about a dangerous girl, and music.

The thing in black, Viktor, David had called him, plugged the iPod in and hit play.

The ancient, wheezy orchestral music vanished, replaced by the sudden, jaunty, pleasant tune of 'The Wanderer', by Dion.

Iah's head snapped up and the fog over her memories vanished.

As Dion DiMucci lifted his voice from the sixties to grace the train car, a smile of understanding curled its way across Iah Bailey's lips.

"Oh," Iah said, looking around. "Hello, David."

Without warning, Iah leapt up, and with all of her body weight behind it, drove her elbow into the monster's nose. A sickening crunch and a startled scream burst from David's mouth as Iah shattered bone, and blood splattered across her exposed abdomen. David screamed in fury and pain. Iah danced back, putting distance between herself and him. That wound would only blind David for a moment.

These were vampires, after all.

The other four, slow to react, ran for her when suddenly the window nearest Iah exploded in a shower of polycarbonate glass shards. A sleek, armored drone with a single, glowing blue lens dropped a package into Iah's waiting arms before bursting out the other window in a show of force. "Get her!" David screamed from behind a blood-drenched hand.

The four vampires around Iah hissed and moved to close in when suddenly the train went completely dark. Over the speakers, The Wanderer continued to play, drowning out the commands of David and the protests of his lessers. Heedless, The Night Train rocketed on its steady rumble over the tracks like a steel heartbeat.

In the dark, Iah caught a flash of movement and saw the drone shoot back into the train. It circled silently behind her, its blue sensor immeasurably reassuring.

Iah kicked off the white stilettos, tore off the remains of the tattered dress, and then turned to the package in her hands.

'Fire-Salt Gauntlets. You leeches are fucked now!' Iah thought.

The drone behind Iah, Grumpy, her brother liked to call it, gave three small beeps, then two, then one. Iah slid the gauntlets over her hands, wriggled her fingers in the titanium-alloy gloves, then flicked a switch on the back of each of them. Twenty small orange bars flared to life on the heavy metal gauntlets, and Iah smiled.

"It's showtime," She said.

Grumpy, the dark armored drone gave an affirmative whistle. A brilliant, white spotlight burst from the drone, outlining the mostly naked back of Iah Bailey as she dropped into a combat stance.

On the throne, David quivered in rage.

The drone's spotlight blinded the vampires, who hissed and squinted, their heightened, nocturnal vision struggling against the focused beams of light. Iah gave a slight nod and the drone whirred dutifully.

"And we are live! Welcome to the stream everybody. Glad you could make it. KillboSnaggins13, good to see you again! Welcome to the show, fellow hunters, welcome to IAH KILLS EVERYTHING!"

Iah smiled. This was her life. Infiltrating lairs, killing monsters, and streaming it for cash. It was good to hear Erik's voice again too. She hoped her brother was ok.

"I knew it! When I found that fucking music box I knew it was you!" David screamed from between his fingers. "They call you Blood-Red. Well, I'll fucking show you! The Magnate family is nothing like the rats you're used to hunting. You're trapped in here with us!"

Iah smiled and slowly rose from her defensive stance. She could see the men glancing at her body. Good, she thought. Be distracted.

"Trapped? With you?" Iah called, laughing. "Oh, David, I think you've got that mixed up. By the way, talking out of turn? That's gonna dock you five points. Don't worry. I'll give you a chance to make it up in the later rounds. Dwarves?"

All of a sudden, six beams of concentrated, artificial sunlight shone through the windows from six small, dark objects hovering and keeping up with the train. The four vampires screamed in feral reaction to the light, instantly losing their humanity. They thrashed and hissed, their eyes shining like distant red streetlights as they dropped to all fours, creatures of the night. Eyes wide in disbelief, David pressed himself back into his throne as his coterie howled and surged at Iah. "Incoming left," Erik said, speaking through the drone called Grumpy.

"I see it," Iah said.

In truth, the vampires moved faster than her eyes could follow, but she'd honed her reflexes and knew how they fought. Under sunlight, artificial or not, leeches became little more than beasts. Iah clenched her fists and felt the gauntlets prime to life as the quickest, coming from the left, like Erik said, kicked off the train car wall and leapt at her from above. The one in white batted aside his comrades and lunged a second after the first.

Moving on instinct, Iah punched as hard as she could in the spot she predicted the vampire would be. Her metal-encased fist connected with the sternum of the leaping gray suit vampire with a satisfying crunch. Iah smiled. The gauntlet discharged like a shotgun, injecting an explosive into the vampire and rocketing him back into the side of the train car.

The second vampire, the beast in black, leapt, claws outstretched. Iah had only enough time to kick a footstool into the air and duck before the first vampire she'd punched exploded in a pillar of screaming red flame, blasting a smoking hole in the side of the train.

The explosion ripped apart the beautiful interior of the lounge and turned the airborne footstool into wooden shrapnel. Jagged shards of the chair pierced and peppered the bodies of the vampires in white and black and they screeched in agony.

Half of Viktor's face was blackened and smoking. Iah dispatched him with a punch to the throat that cut his scream and a second later his head exploded, releasing a pillar of horrible, crimson flame that blackened the ceiling and set off the fire sprinklers.

With a wondrous squelch, the vampire in white ripped the wooden spike from his leg.

"Die!" He screamed and put on a burst of speed.

Immediately behind him, recovering from the light and particularly bestial was the vampire in blue. The last two goons.

Iah rose into a crouch to defend herself but she knew she wasn't going to be fast enough. The feral vampires were little more than blurs coming at her, their eyes like swerving tail-lights in the dark. She raised her arms, hoping to deflect the blows as The Wanderer faded out.

In the silence between songs, the sound of gunfire filled the air.

The bright world before her lit up with motion as thousands of bullets tore the vampires to shreds. To Iah, the bullets looked like flashes of lightning in the sprinkler rain. She stood, backlit by Grumpy, giving the audience the view she knew they wanted as the two remaining vampires withered to piles of twitching limbs. They weren't dead, but given their swiss cheese appearance, Iah knew they wished they were.

Iah turned to face David Magnate. Fire smoldered in her hazel eyes. The Vampire lord was a monster, a predator of the worst kind. But as she stood naked and wet before David and the entire dark web, she knew there was more than a little monster in her as well.

The darkened countryside flew by beside her, visible through the massive, smoking hole in the train. One by one, the drones her brother had designed, built, and now controlled filtered in the ruined train car around her, machine guns at the ready.

David let out a low growl, his skin smoldering under the intense, artificial sunlight glare of the seven small drones, and stood up. His gaze swept from the hovering, deadly machines to the dangerous, nude woman before him and back again, understanding.

"You're broadcasting this?!" David hissed.

He stepped towards Iah, his fat hands balling into meaty fists.

Around them, the ruined train speakers began to play a low-tempo Electro-House jam. The drones jockeyed for position around Iah, cameras zooming and whirling, catching every dramatic angle.

Iah didn't answer. She tapped her foot, feeling the thumping house beat in her soul. The water splashing her skin felt good and refreshing. Her eyes never left his.

David's eyes flashed bright red and he raised a clawed hand as if he meant to choke her.

"I tell you now. Kneel before me and maybe I shall consider leniency!" David demanded, his voice suddenly a deep and mighty baritone.

The house beat was beginning to pick up. Iah cocked her head and watched as confusion spread across David's features. Nothing was happening.

"Oh. You expected that to do something, didn't you?" Iah asked. "Vampire powers?"

David faltered. He looked at his hand as if it betrayed him.

"Go ahead. Show the dark web your badass vampire powers," Iah said, her tone acidic. "Turn to mist. Turn into a bat and fly away."

David's body shook with rage and effort but the abilities Iah listed wouldn't function. The rage in his eyes turned to fear.

"None of your goddamn leech powers will work on me," Iah said, staring up at David.

"Who are you?" David asked.

"Iah Bailey. Hunter extraordinaire," Iah answered, taking a step back to give David room. "Let's tell the people why we're here David. You like to beat on and feed from little girls, isn't that right, Mr. Magnate? You're not just a vampire, but a predator, who still gets his undead rocks off on underage girls in little white dresses."

David sputtered. Iah's voice rose over him.

"You were going to beat me, and rape me and fucking eat me, like that cabin full of dead girls, isn't that right? You vampire leech piece of shit!"

The drones whirred, catching every angle of the interaction.

"Do you expect me to grovel and beg!?" David hollered, eyes blazing. "I am Baron David Centarium Magnate! I take what I want, when I want. All of mankind is nothing but fuel to me! I'll burn you as I please!"

Iah smiled. She turned to the drones and nodded.

"There he is, people. Well, David. I already docked you some points, but I said you could make em' up later. Now's your chance. I'm gonna give you the chance you never gave any of you victims."

Iah took two steps back and put her fists up.

"A fighting chance. Fight for your life, David," Iah said.

For a moment, David simply stood there. Then, he straightened and began to laugh. It was louder than the music in the train car and abrasive. It jiggled his whole body and Iah thought he was going to fall over. Then, his eyes flashed up, his back unnaturally arched.

"You want to see Baron Magnate do battle!? It will be my pleasure to educate you!" David screamed.

In a sudden tsunami of muscles, all of the fat on David's body rippled and swelled, gorging with blood and becoming hard as steel. He burst out of his suit, tearing off the restricting fabric to reveal a monster of pure, physical power.

Iah rolled her eyes and sighed. David cackled. His long tongue tasted the air like a snake as he surveyed his own might.

"Whatever you are, hunter, monster, your ability to quell powers only seems to work on external manifestations," David gloated, stepping closer and towering over Iah. "In this form, I am unstoppable."

Erik's voice floated from one of the drones, Sleepy he called it.

"Iah? This doesn't look good," Erik said. "Want me to light him up?"

"Nope. He's all-ugh!"

In a blur of motion, David lunged forward and kicked Iah squarely in the chest, shattering ribs on both sides. The force of the blow was like a grenade and Iah flew through the air until her body collided with the back of the train car. Her head hit hard and her vision went blurry.

With a burst of speed too fast for even the drone cameras to follow, David flew across the train and drove his enormous knee into Iah's stomach. Sound's she'd never made before burst from her throat and Iah threw up on David's knee.

The blood-engorged, muscle-clad vampire looked like an ogre of legend to Iah's swimming vision. She shook her head, trying to shake off what was definitely a concussion.

The sound of seven chain-guns whirring to life suddenly filled the train car and David spun around, blood trailing from his eyes like fire.

"Don't interfere!" David roared, bestial and wild. "I'll-"

Before he got a chance to say another word, Iah pressed a button on her right gauntlet, producing a compact but brutal blade and drove it deep into his neck. The gauntlet discharged like a shotgun, pumping the blade into the tough muscle and delivered the chemical explosive with a satisfying slurp.

"Feed on this!" Iah spat through bloody teeth.

David buckled, grabbing at his throat in a futile effort. He stumbled to his feet, eyes bulging wide before turning to the drones, a look of absolute helplessness and fear plastered on his vile face. "Damn," David managed before his head exploded in a brilliant pillar of white, screaming fire.

* * *

A short while later, Erik and Iah bailey leaned against the side of a battered, green Land Rover, staring out at the ocean. Dawn was beginning to etch its orange light across the surface of Europe. Soon, the creatures of the night would crawl back into their holes.

Iah looked at her little brother from beneath a blood-stained towel. She'd changed into a black tank-top and shorts, but remained barefoot, playing with the grass.

Erik was shorter than her and slender, but he was starting to put on muscle. He smiled, his brown hair rustling in the morning wind. Erik was giddy with how the stream had gone and eager to review the drone footage.

His seven dwarf predator's sat in the back of the Rover, inactive at the moment. Would there come a time when Erik was forced to turn those drones on her? She was, after all, a monster that hunted monsters. Each time Iah came up against intelligent supernaturals, the evidence against her humanity mounted, but somehow, Erik never seemed to notice. If he did, he never brought it up. "You did good," Iah said, turning her gaze to the rising sun. "You sure the authorities that find that train won't be vampire thralls?"

"Only one way to find out," Erik answered.

Iah smiled. He was a good kid. Brilliant. Bold. He was going to make the world a better place.

Erik looked at his sister. She was shaken. He could see the concern in her eyes and hear the uncertainty in her voice. She'd fought hard and was almost exposed in the process. That had to be wearing on her.

He stood up and offered her a hand.

"Come on," Erik said.

Iah laughed and looked out across the ocean, ignoring him. Her gaze was long and her mood heavy. Erik tapped her on the shoulder and then pulled her to her feet.

"Hey," He said. There was blood on her cheek and he wiped it off. "You're my sister. Nothing is ever gonna change that. I'm proud of everything you've done, and if you ever want to stop doing this, I get it."

Iah nodded.

"Mom and Dad would be proud," Erik said.

"You think so?" Iah asked, crossing her arms.

"I know so," Erik answered, smiling. "We stayed together. That's what they would have wanted."

Iah didn't answer, but she didn't have to. Erik was right. They sat in silence, letting understanding pass between them. Together, on a hill overlooking the ocean, the Bailey siblings watched the sun rise over an unsuspecting world.