Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) by Shannon Mayer, Denise Grover Swank Page A

gleaming in the moonlight. Silver. He jabbed forward, but not fast enough. I shot him twice in the chest, throwing him backward.
    Ivan shoved the man over the side with his heel. Seconds later, Lea lifted her head and pushed the man over the side. She turned to me, anger in her eyes.
    “I told you to wait in the dining car.”
    I climbed to a squat, then stood. “You’re welcome. Now, what did you see?”
    “He didn’t know shit. All he knew was that he was supposed to kill Ivan and me, then take you to someone. He didn’t know who.”
    “Government? Vampire council? Hades?”
    “Vamps would have sent their own to deal with me,” she snarled. “And who the fuck is Hades anyway?”
    “The contact I met earlier. But I doubt it’s him. He went out of his way to give me information about the lab in Iraq. He wants me to go there.”
    “Evan said we can’t trust him.”
    “No shit, but we still need to get to that facility. Trap or not.”
    “So that leaves the government. Which means they’ll be watching for you at the airport.”
    I ran my hand over my head, smoothing back the stray hairs that had escaped my ponytail. “Fuck. Let me think.” I looked up at her. “How much of Victor’s money do you have access to? Enough to hire a private jet?”
    “How much are you talking?”
    I sucked in a breath. “For all three of us? I don’t know, maybe fifty thousand. That’s just to London. And more if we want to keep it quiet.”
    She gave a quick nod. “I have a way. First we have to get off this train.”
    “You better check on your wolf. He’s not looking so good.” Ivan had dropped to one knee and his shirt was covered with blood.
    “I’m fine,” he grunted.
    “You’re a fucking bullet pin cushion,” Lea grunted. “We have to get them out.”
    “First we have to get off.” I scanned the track ahead, spotting a curve. “We can jump off there,” I said, pointing. “We find a car, then hide in a motel while we nurse Ivan’s wounds and figure out the new flight arrangements to London.”
    Nodding, Lea pulled Ivan’s arm around her shoulder and tucked her bag under her arm.
    “We’re not holing up anywhere,” Ivan forced out, his voice shaky with pain. “I’m fine. I’m a damned werewolf.”
    “Who just got shot with silver bullets,” Lea said, climbing to her feet and pulling him with her. “I just told you they intended to kill us.”
    “Play Hercules after we get off this train,” I said, moving over to the edge. Damn, this was going to hurt like a motherfucker. “There’s a field up here. It’s our place.” I was relieved to see several houses a few hundred feet away. We wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere.
    Lea and Ivan got into position beside me as the train turned the corner.
    Tuck and roll.
    I moved my bag around to my abdomen, then leapt, landing on my upper back with a jarring pain and continuing to roll. When I finally stopped, I lay on my back, staring at the stars in the clear sky. Pain shot through my shoulder and I sighed, my breath escaping in a white, wispy cloud.
    “Rachel? You all right?” Lea asked to my left.
    I pushed up to a sitting position, clutching my arm to my chest. Pain radiated through my upper body with enough intensity that tiny bright stars flashed across in my vision. “I think I dislocated my shoulder and maybe broke my collar bone.”
    “Fuck.”
    “I’m fine. Let’s go.” I got to my feet and opened my bag, feeling inside my padded computer case to make sure it had survived the fall. I couldn’t be positive it still worked, but at least it wasn’t in pieces.
    “ Rachel .”
    I turned to face her, immediately regretting the rapid movement. “We have two hours tops until the sun rises. We need to get somewhere where we can hide and figure things out.”
    She gestured to Ivan, who was lumbering to his feet. “He needs help. Can he make it to one of those houses?”
    “I can make it,” he growled.
    If I weren’t hurting so much,