A War of the Dead and the Damned: The Juniper St. James Saga - Book 4 (The Vampire's Courtesan) by Sami Valentine

Author:Sami Valentine
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Pocketmaus Press
Published: 2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

JUNIPER

December 23rd, Late Evening

En route to Paris

In the Liège station, fog huddled around the gas lampposts in the cold, humid night. A porter leaped down from the arriving train to the solitary covered platform. He blew a silver whistle to beckon any ticket holders. The sound fizzled to a startled toot when he turned to the three new passengers.

Juniper pretended all was well despite her dirty dress and smoky smell and gave him the tickets. She gestured to Penelope and Tom, who were as ragged as her. “We’re in a first-class seating car. I was informed that the sleeper beds were full.”

The porter pursed his lips in amusement before he read the paper stubs in obvious disbelief. “Allow me to verify your passage.”

She waited patiently, knowing she’d get her way in the end.

He spoke to the lone clerk in the lit-up ticket booth. When he returned, he seemed chastened. “My condolences for your plight. I couldn’t get on another train after such a terrible tragedy if I were you.”

Penelope looked like a fragile porcelain doll in the wan light. She coughed into her handkerchief. With pretty politeness despite her ill health, she said, “Please, we wish to be home, sir. I asked the clerk to dispatch a telegram to my fiancé, who is expecting me.”

“Where are our seats?” Juniper asked, eager for the security of four walls against the darkness. Lucas’s reappearance, even briefly, had reopened wounds she’d tried to forget were there. Until she was safe, she couldn’t cry.

“Yes, miss.” The porter guided them to their train car. He introduced them to the attendant assigned to first class and added, “Provide extra blankets and tea, please. For their suffering.”

Juniper found her seat with her companions in the back. The start of the train sent senseless panic through her. She gripped Penelope’s hand without thinking.

An attendant brought them refreshments on a tray. He offered kindly, “We have a headache powder from the first aid kit.”

Tom nodded stiffly, like the motion hurt his neck. “If you would bring it, good man.”

Penelope clutched her forehead. “Please.”

When the attendant returned with the medicine, Juniper recognized the brand as having opium in it. The sedative could leave her senseless and unrousable—a terrifying possibility. What if the vampires caught up with them? She declined to put more than a few grains of the off-white powder in her own drink.

The trio sipped their tea quietly. An exhausted hush lingered over them like the fog outside. Juniper couldn’t process any more stimuli. It seemed like the others felt the same in their own fashion. After their first dosed tea, her companions fell asleep, but she couldn’t relax. Her back was too knotted and tense to find a comfortable position. A bruise on her knee throbbed whenever she moved her legs. She couldn’t remember how she got it. As the adrenaline and fear drained, her aches from the crash deepened.

She braced herself at each curve in the tracks for a collision that never came.

Perched with cat-like readiness,

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