 Drawing a deep breath, Ori opened the door and slipped to the next car. From the noises he heard now, the fuel car was next, then the engine, making this the first car with ‘passengers’. He came to an abrupt halt and leaned back against the door, gaze sweeping the train car. This car was luxurious compared to the way people were crammed into the other cars, if one didn’t take into account the occupants were chained together. Three werewolves and two vampires. They studied Ori and he took stock of them. Moving quietly forward he said in Yiddish, “No German, French, or English.” They all nodded. “How?” Ori asked. One man, a werewolf, cleared his throat and spoke softly. “They came to our town and took children from school, saying if we didn’t do as we were told the children would be shot.” Ori sucked in a breath. No werewolf would be party to a child, werewolf or human, being hurt. It was against their nature. To them the pack and its offspring were everything. “How did they recognize you?” The man shook his head. “I do not know, but they knew there were non-humans among the humans in our section of town.” Ori nodded and looked at the vampires. The man continued, “There was a room in a local tavern that was lined with iron. An electric current was run through the floor once we were inside.” “It is possible for humans to learn to recognize us and your kind. It would only take one person,” another of the werewolves pointed out. “There are others on this train. How and why, I don’t know. I don’t think it matters,” Ori said. He looked all around the train car, finally seeing a hook near the far door with keys hanging from it. Moving fast Ori sprinted to the other end of the car and snagged the ring with the single key on it. He bounced it between both hands a few times before he could determine it was iron, not silver coated. Silver was deadly to a vampire or werewolf if it got into their blood stream. Iron would trap and hold them, but not hurt them. “We have others on this train. All of us need to work together. Everyone can be freed before we reach the death camp,” Ori said. He made eye contact with each of the five people. “Us.” He tapped his chest then motioned to the vampires. “And them.” His hand swung in the direction of the werewolves. “And the others on this train can save the people here. Maybe we can’t save everyone in this war, but we can help this trainload of people.” “Do you see the weapon locker over there?” One of the werewolves nodded to cabinets along one wall. They were short, more like trunks anchored to the floor and wall. Ori bent and took hold of one edge of the closest trunk. The fact it was locked only slowed him down by a few seconds. When he looked inside, he expected to see rifles, handguns, grenades, and knives. What he saw was something entirely different. Neatly lined throughout the trunk were at least a dozen containers with tightly screwed on tops. Inside was what looked like a type of jelly or slurry, some had what appeared to be congealed blood, but Ori wasn’t sure that’s what it was. He picked one up and held it out. “What are these?” “They bound us with these chains then took a knife and scraped our skin until it bled,” One of the vampires, a woman, said. “They used needles on some of us, poked me here.” She put two fingers under her jaw. “And here.” The female werewolf put one hand over her side. “Then what they took from us was put into those containers.” Ori picked up several of the containers and held them in both hands. He stuffed them inside his shirt before he took the key and unlocked one of the vampires and one of the werewolves. Pressing the key into the werewolf’s palm he took her hand in his and said gently, “All of us, together. We’re Jewish first. I’m a rabbi first, vampire second.” Endosymbiont is available in eBook, paperback and through Kindle Unlimited.     Comments are closed.
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