Tagan's Child (26 page)

I pulled the
sheets up around my neck and my mind drifted to our kiss. That was
the one sticking point. I was so attracted to him, when I was near
him it was like I was being sucked into his very own force field
and I was powerless to resist. Maybe I should go to bed with him?
Perhaps it would exorcise the power he had over me. It didn’t have
to mean anything. Bennie seemed to be able to do it without falling
apart afterwards.

They were brave
words but could I just walk away? I rolled over in frustration.
Toby had to be my priority and whatever I decided to do about
Ahran, it had to come second to my reason for being here. It was
Toby’s second night away from home with people he didn’t know in a
land he never knew even existed and here was me wondering whether
or not I should jump into bed with Ahran. I felt pretty
despicable.

I closed my
eyes. “Hang in there buddy, we are on our way,” I mouthed. I had
never believed in God, most of the things that had happened in my
life had been enough proof that he didn’t exist. But if he did and
he had any ounce of remorse for the loss I had suffered and the
pain it had caused, maybe he would make an exception and protect
Toby. I figured it would be a good way of making amends.

I could hear
Ahran’s steady breathing and I envied him being able to sleep. I
tossed and turned and eventually fell into a fitful sleep. Just as
I was climbing up a crumbling rock face and watching the rocks fall
a hundred feet to the ground I was woken by someone banging on the
door.

Ahran jumped
deftly to his feet, awake and alert in a split second.

“What is it?” I
said, sleep-dazed.

“Not sure.”

He opened the
door to the same guard who had checked our ID earlier. They
exchanged a few words. He shut the door and turned back to me, I
couldn’t see his face in the dark but his voice conveyed his
concern.

“Get
dressed.”

“Why? What is
it?” I asked.

“Apparently
there is some kind of emergency and the train is stopping at the
next station.”

“Oh,” I said,
sitting up and switching the reading light on at the head of my
bed.

“I’m going to
see if I can find out more. Get dressed and don’t open the door to
anyone,” he warned. Without another word he slipped out of the
cabin.

I got out of
bed and put my jeans and a sweater on. The days were warm here but
the nights felt decidedly cool. I went into the bathroom, brushed
my hair and put it into a ponytail. I went back into the cabin and
sat in one of the armchairs and awaited Ahran’s return. By way of a
distraction, I touched the small screen embedded in the wall next
to my seat. It sprang to life and began to run a promotional film
about travelling on a train like this and all the picturesque
places you could visit.

Within a couple
of minutes Ahran was back.

“Anything?”

“I’ve just
walked the length of the train and I couldn’t see or hear anything
that might be considered an emergency. Something isn’t right and I
have a suspicion the reason we are stopping might have something to
do with us.”

His words sent
a cold shiver down my spine.

“We need to get
off,” he said.

“At the next
station?”

“No, we need to
get off before we get to the next station.”

“But the train
is still moving.” He wasn’t making any sense.

“I know, don’t
worry, it will be fine.”

“Please tell me
you are not thinking about jumping off the train whilst it’s still
moving?” I couldn’t see anything out of the window, it was pitch
black but I could sense we were still travelling at speed. The
thought filled me with horror.

“The train will
start to decelerate some way before the station and we will jump
off before we get there.”

“But that’s
madness!” I protested.

“We’ll jump
together and I’ll shield you from the impact.”

“And how are
you going to do that?” I asked doubtfully.

“Please just
trust me.”

“Is this our
only option?”

“I can’t think
of a better one. I am pretty sure Bazeera’s agents are waiting for
us at the next station.”

I weighed up
our options. Jumping off a moving train or getting off at the next
station into the waiting arms of a handful of lethal killers? I had
to admit that jumping seemed to be our only option.

“The train is
slowing and we need to go,” he said, slipping into soldier
mode.

I was scared
half to death but I had to trust him, what other choice did I
have?

We left our
cabin and headed down the corridor, I thought we were heading to
the doors but Ahran pulled me into the communal toilet and shower
room instead. I looked at him, my eyes full of questions. He shut
the door behind us.

“We can’t use
the doors because they’ll know they have been forced, we are going
to have to jump out of the window.”

This idea was
getting worse by the minute.

I looked at the
frosted glass. It was quite large, big enough for an adult to climb
through, but it was completely sealed.

“How are we
going to jump out of it, if it doesn’t open?”

“Leave that to
me,” he replied.

I could tell
that the train was slowing, we must have been nearing the station
and we were running out of time.

“Stand to the
side.”

I did as he
said.

He took a few
deep breaths and then swung his leg up and kicked the window in one
swift but controlled movement. There was a loud crack and the
window shattered but stayed in place. He kicked it squarely in the
middle for a second time. The glass popped out of its frame in one
piece and fell into the night.

“I’m going to
lift you up. You will need to sit with your legs dangling out,
don’t worry I won’t let you fall. I am going to straddle you, I’ll
count to three and then we’ll jump together, okay?”

“No, not okay.
Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“I am strong
enough to take the impact and I will shield you from the ground.
The worst you’ll feel is winded.” I was glad that one of us was
convinced it was going to be okay.

I reluctantly
moved in front of him and he placed his hands on my waist. My pulse
picked up a notch. Did my desire for him have no boundaries? How
reckless was my body to still be affected by his touch when we were
about to throw ourselves out of the window of a moving train?

In one deft
movement Ahran swung me up and through the window until I was
sitting on the window frame. I clutched the top of the frame in
panic. Before I knew it, he was balanced on the window frame with
his legs either side of me. I struggled to keep my legs still as
the wind whistled past.

I felt his
mouth close to my ear. The train was virtually silent but the noise
of the wind buffeted in my ears.

“Okay, tuck
your head into your chest.” He had one arm around my waist and was
gripping the top of the window frame with his other hand.

I tucked my
head down as far as I could, too frozen by fear to argue.

“One.”

Against my
better judgement, I let go and Ahran held me tightly to him. I
closed my eyes. This came close to being the most scared I had ever
been in my life, surely we were jumping to our deaths?

“Two.”

I swallowed and
sent up a silent prayer.

“Three.”

I felt the
thrust of his hips as he pushed us away from the window frame and I
let out a soundless scream, the kind of scream you do in a
terrifying dream. We flew through the air and for a moment I felt
weightless. Ahran tucked my head further into my chest and wrapped
himself around me. I was completely cocooned by his large muscular
body.

We hit the
ground, the impact forcing the breath out of me as if I had been
hit by the train we had just jumped out of. Like clothes in a
tumble dryer, we began to roll over and over through the
undergrowth and after what seemed like an eternity we finally
stopped. I laid there not moving, frightened that every bone in my
body had been broken. I was lying on my right side and Ahran was
still holding me with his body curved against my back, his knees
crooked into the back of mine.

“Sophie?” His
voice was urgent.

I wasn’t quite
able to speak.

“Are you
alright?”

I detected a
note of panic.

I forced myself
to answer. “I don’t know,” I croaked. My lungs felt like they were
stuck together. “I…can’t…breathe.”

“Just relax and
breathe in slowly.”

I’d been winded
before but this was something else. I tried to do as he said and
relaxed, I could feel the panic rising as I struggled to drag the
air into my lungs.

“Go up onto all
fours, you might find it easier.”

I did as he
suggested, although every one of my muscles protested. It did feel
better, there didn’t seem to be so much pressure on my chest.
Gradually, I took one shaky breath and then another. I ached from
head to toe but the sheer fact that I was able to move meant that
my initial assessment had been incorrect. All bones were
intact.

Ahran gently
rubbed my back.

“How about you?
Are you okay?” I said rocking back onto my heels.

I turned to
look at him, terrified that he might be hurt. It was difficult to
make out his face, it was pitch black.

“I am fine, I
am sure I’ll have the odd bruise but nothing that won’t heal.”

I put my arms
around his neck and hugged him. He gently put his arms around me
and hugged me back.

“We’ve got to
stop having these near death moments,” I said, pulling away. “That
has got to be the craziest thing I have ever done. How is it that
neither of us are hurt?”

“You really
need to start trusting me more.” I could hear his smile rather than
see it. It was the first time I’d really been aware of his
superhuman strength.

“Do you think
you can stand up?” he said as he got to his feet.

“Yes I think
so,” I said, putting it to the test. He put his hand out to steady
me. “Ah!” I winced

“What is it?”
he asked anxiously.

“My shoulder
hurts.”

“Whereabouts?”
His thumb began tracing the muscles of my shoulder blade.

“Ouch, there,
where your thumb is now.”

He stabbed his
thumbs either side of where it hurt.

“Ahran!” I was
a little taken aback by how hard he had pressed, didn’t he realise
how painful it was?

“Now circle
your shoulder. It should start to feel a little easier.”

I circled it a
few times and he was right. “What did you just do?”

“Pressure
points.”

“Pressure
points?”

“You just
needed to release the tension between the two pressure points, your
muscle had gone into spasm.”

I circled it
another couple of times expecting it to hurt but it didn’t.

“Oh right,
thanks.” He really was a one man survival machine.

“Sophie, I have
to hand it to you, you are one brave Sapien. You walk away from
being strangled without as much as a backward glance, you shoot a
trained killer without hesitation and then you jump off a train
with little complaint. I don’t know of many Ramians who would have
coped with what you’ve put up with over the last couple of
days.”

I didn’t like
to admit how good it felt to hear the admiration in his voice.

“I’m no
ordinary Sapien,” I said.

He laughed. “No
you are certainly not ordinary.” Something in his tone made my
stomach flutter.

“Okay, so what
do we do now?” I asked, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

“We walk.”

“I had a
feeling you might say that. Have you any idea where we are?” I
asked as we began to pick our way through the undergrowth.

“No, not a
clue.”

“Don’t you have
some kind of inbuilt navigation system? What kind of superhuman are
you?” I teased. I wasn’t sure why I felt so jolly all of a sudden.
Maybe it was because I had just survived another brush with death,
maybe it was because for the time being we were safe, no one was
following us and no one knew where we were, or maybe it was because
I had just earned Ahran’s respect.

We were walking
through undergrowth in a wooded area and it was almost impossible
to see where I was putting my feet. I stumbled a number of times
but Ahran’s arm came out and caught me every time. I couldn’t tell
how long we had been walking but it seemed like we were moving
deeper into the wood rather than towards civilisation.

“I’m not sure
how much farther I can walk,” I said, stumbling for the umpteenth
time. I felt absolutely exhausted, all I wanted to do was climb
into bed, but I had no idea how far away bed was. “

“You are doing
really well Sophie. Try to keep going a bit longer. I am hoping we
might come across a farm so we can bed down in a barn for the
night.”

This wasn’t
quite what I had in mind. The wood seemed to be thinning out and it
looked like we were walking into a more open space.

“I can smell
sheep. With a bit of luck we might come across a lambing hut,” he
speculated.

I sniffed the
air but all I could smell was a feint earthy smell as our feet
disturbed the undergrowth. I tried to picture what a lambing hut
might look like; it must be where sheep gave birth. I think I might
have preferred to sleep out under the stars.

“There!” Ahran
said, making me jump.

“What is
it?”

“A lambing
hut.”

I strained my
eyes in the darkness but couldn’t see beyond more than a few
paces.

“I’ll have to
take your word for it,” I said dryly.

We walked for a
few more minutes and then I could just about make out the outline
of a small building. His night vision was so much better than
mine.