Don't Touch by Barbara Taub

Author:Barbara Taub [Taub, Barb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Hartwood Publishing
Published: 2013-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Metro Rider

LiveJournal, November 20, 2012 by LetteS

Traveling on the Metro is boring. There’s nothing to see out of the windows, while the sound and motion of the wheels against the rails is so…soothing…

 •●• 

Metro Rider, Part 2

LiveJournal, November 20, 2012 by LetteS

“Coffee or Tea? Sandwiches?” I opened my eyes to see a food trolley next to my chair. The young man pushing it politely repeated, “Something to eat or drink?”

“What do you have?”

With the jeans and long-sleeve shirt, he looked like someone who happened to wander by and decided to push the trolley. A closer look showed the jeans were designer, the shirt had a little train logo, and his short blond hair was even more rigorously styled than Stefan’s Hollywood phase. He shook his head without enthusiasm, but his hazel eyes looked interested behind the trendy dark-framed glasses. “Not much, actually. Those sandwiches have been around a while. Unless you’re starving, I’d stick to coffee.”

I nodded, but as I reached up, I heard him suck in his breath. Setting down the cup he’d been holding out, he grabbed my wrist and bent down to look at the train tattoo. “Ow!” I pulled back, realizing that we were alone in the train car. “No, it’s okay.” He pulled back his shirt cuff to show me a duplicate of my tattoo. But where mine flamed bright on my wrist, his was barely visible. “You’re the new SA?”

“New what?”

“Service Agreement. I knew you had to be coming soon, because my tattoo is almost gone. Come on. I have a feeling we don’t have much time.”

He told me his name was Jacob, and that his partner Anton was a minor demon. Between them, they had enough for only one ticket to Null City, so Jacob— “Only one person gets to call me Jake” —had accepted a service contract. He had taken over from a young girl who wanted to ride the Metro while she looked for her missing brother and sister before going to Null City.

Actually, Jacob had little to show me and even less to tell. In the last car of the train is a small bedroom and bathroom with a tiny shower, located behind a larger kitchen with a huge walk-in freezer. Looking inside the freezer, I noticed that it was empty. Supplies are ordered regularly, Jacob explained, but they come on board erratically at various stops because the Metro doesn’t travel in a straight chronological line. So you have to just eat what’s available and store as much as possible in the freezer. He lived for almost a week once on granola and powdered coffee creamer. At the moment, there was a cabinet packed with bags of coffee beans, and another overflowing with packets of sugar, artificial sweeteners, and creamers, but little else.

We talked while Jacob showed me where to find sheets and towels, as well as the stash of train-logo shirts and the little washer/dryer. At one point he looked up from packing his bag to ask, “What are you?”

When I just shook my head, he clarified, “I’m a human.

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