READ: Marked Men 3

A stowaway on a train, running from something horrible, falls into the hands of evil men. Soon, innocent lives will be lost as human monsters will face something ancient, powerful... and hungry.

Read Part 1 or jump into the conclusion. Stay tuned for more chapters, and audio-improved episodes of OTHER fantasy adventures. I hope to get you hyped for the launch of an entire new fantasy world and novel this summer!

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“Let him go, Travis. I'll take his place.”

Travis laughed from inside the cavern littered with the bodies of the Chinese, and Hawkins. “There's my huckleberry!” His laughter choked off when Daniel stepped through the low opening. The gunfighter stared in amazement at the glyphs projected about the cavern.

“Let him go,” Daniel said. “If you're worth your word.”

Travis, hypnotized by the light, let his hand fall away from Jun. The boy ran to Daniel's side, wonder instead of fear lighting the boy's face.

“What is it?” Travis laughed away his awe, became once more the wary killer. “That a Chink trick? Won't help you escape. I know the yella's got a way out. Bock didn't believe me, but I know there's one. Won't help you none, though.”

“No, not me,” Daniel agreed, watching a familiar shadow grow behind Travis, the light of the Mark unable to pierce its veil.

“Not the kid either,” Travis promised, his voice ugly.

“Care to make a bet?” Daniel asked, jutting his chin at a patch of shadow growing just past Travis' right shoulder.

“You're too far away to make that chestnut work,” Travis laughed, and cast a relaxed look over his shoulder. He saw the blackness growing there and jumped away from it.

Jun began to cry and tugged at Daniel's hand. “Let's away, please,” the boy begged.

The blackness took shape. “Danniell,” it whispered. Something stepped out of shadow to at last be kissed by the light of the Mark. It was almost a man, tall and pallid and gray. Seven feet or more, naked but for a light cloak cast to the side. Daniel held his hand toward it, illuminating the cloak that trailed behind in a messy tangle reaching to the dirt. Not a cloak. It was a set of rotting, feathered wings.
It stopped between the men and knelt to smile at the boy. Daniel yanked Jun away. “And what plans have you made for me this moonless night?” it rumbled.

“He is not for you!”

It nodded. “I doubted you would hide behind a child.” It rose and turned to Travis. “But this is a morsel I will take.”

Travis shook his head, fear twisting his face. “Wh—what are you?”

“I am neither risen or fallen, mortal.”

Travis sunk to his knees, frantically trying to pray around the butt of the gun he'd worshiped for so long. “No. I don't want to die!”

“How unfortunate for you,” it said. Travis screamed and started shooting.

Bullets passed through it. Daniel grabbed Jun, shielding his body and pulling him toward the opening. Lead chipped the walls around them. “Run, find Shen!” The boy was scared, and couldn't free his eyes from the wailing gunfighter and the creature advancing on him. Daniel shook him hard, and Jun snapped out of the spell.

“And don't come back, hear?”

Travis was firing faster now, screaming wordlessly. Daniel pushed the boy out into the passage and shoved, watching to make sure he was running before leaping back into the cave.

“Wait!” Daniel shouted, too late. The creature placed his hand on Travis' chest. The gunman begged one last time as his skin began to wrinkle and blacken.

Daniel closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the cool rock, sickened. The hammer fell impotently a few more times as Travis' moans dimmed to a childlike mewling, then to silence.

It was kneeling in the center of the cavern when Daniel could make himself look again. He watched it lower what had been Travis into a perfect circle of shadow on the floor. When it was all the way through, the circle shrank around the point of the creature's finger and disappeared. It stood and smiled.

“You have come back? A shame. I rarely have such clever pray, and there are more in this mountain I would have taken.”

Daniel shook his head. “You can't have them.”

It sighed, a completely human sound, and the dessicated wings quivered behind it. “I sense your own stain has grown little. You bear the Mark well; without it, you may have suffered only purgation.”

A question came to Daniel. “Who do you serve?”

It bristled, growled. “No one. That is my sin.” And it reached a gray hand out, finger pointing.

“Please!” Jun stumbled in between them and threw his arms around Daniel. Daniel struggled to move him away, too late. The creature's hand touched the back of the boy's head. White light flared where they touched.

The creature gasped, and staggered back, its face transformed by rapture. The look faded quickly, as if remembering something painful. It heaved a single sob, then looked at the boy and smiled. “I had forgotten. Thank you, child.”

Then it carried the smile to Daniel. “I cannot pass such innocence. You are safe this moon. Live well until we meet again.”

The wings rustled, seeming fuller in a way Daniel could not fathom. It stepped back into the shadows falling from the Mark's dying light, and was gone.
~
The train was close by, and slow enough as it steamed uphill. Time to go. Daniel stooped to pick up Jun and place him in the back of the wagon next to Shen and the others.

“Please come, Daniel. I will protect you again,” Jun promised.

Daniel shook his head. “Can't, kiddo. It wouldn't be right.”

Shen tousled the boy's hair and winced. The Chines escape route had been a natural chimney to the top of the mountain, and it had been a hard climb for the old man. “I will take Jun to California. My family will keep him safe.” He gestured to the Mark, faded to coal-red in the light of the day. “This land, everything is steam and steel and telegraph! No way to fight Darkness. When I was small, like Jun, in China there were men who fought it. Maybe you go there?”

Daniel smiled gingerly. “Takes more than a moon to get to China, Shen. No, I think it's time to head back East.”

Shen's eyes narrowed. “The old man, this Nelson? You will find him?”

Daniel hefted the sack of food and clothes Shen had collected for him and shook his head. “Nelson Grainer died peacefully in his sleep three days after I met him. I hear of a big shindig planned for railroad folk, though, next month in New York. Care to wager our friend Bock likes to hobnob?”
Shen cackled, and raised a fist with his good arm. “I hope you good hunting. And if you need a place to rest?”

“I know where to find you. Take care, Shen.”

He reached into the wagon and hugged Jun tight. “Thank you, little man. I owe you one, and I don't welsh on my debts. Not anymore.”

“I will pray for you, Daniel,” Jun sobbed into the shoulder of the silk shirt Shen had given Daniel, but quickly wiped the tears away when Daniel turned and started down the side of the foothill with a wave.
“Ai, a Christian!” Shen muttered as the horses snorted and jerked the wagon into motion. “I tell you all about gods, Jun, just wait!”

Daniel hurried down the foothill. A fellow freerider waved to him from an open car and he broke into a jog down to the tracks. He enjoyed the wind on his face and the whistle of the train.

If all went well, he could be in New York in two weeks. That would give him plenty of time to find Bock and plan the next moonless night.

All the time in the world, if he played it right.