by Laken Cane
She leaned over to grab it. At that exact moment she heard a click and a strange whirr, and a draft of air brushed her hair as something whooshed over her head.
She didn’t think about it. She dropped to the floor and rolled, her claws already out.
Strad’s cell had saved her life—if she hadn’t dropped it, the blade her would-be assassin had sent her way would have taken her head.
The attacker was already gone as she jumped to her feet, crouching, looking wildly around the room for the danger.
He was gone.
“What the fuck?” she said. Then, louder, “What the fuck?”
The only place he could have thrown the blade from was the broken living room window.
She yanked open her door, then loped around the house. She saw no one.
She walked the street, searching for the person who’d tried to kill her.
But he wasn’t there.
Then, something light and somewhat familiar wafted by, a smell so delicate and faint she shouldn’t have caught it at all. But she did, and she recognized the scent.
It was the scent of the man who’d attacked her before—the scent of a human.
A human.
How could a human dare attack her from so close? More importantly than that, how could he just disappear? It was as though he’d never been there at all.
But that elusive, teasing scent lingered, and she pulled it deep into her brain, memorizing it.
The scent of a human, but some kind of fucking…super human.
She went back inside and stared at the blade he’d left. The strength of the throw had embedded it in her wall.
She grasped the part sticking out, avoiding the sharp edges, and forced it free. Had she been anyone else, a pair of pliers and a lot of muscle would have been required to work it free.
The weapon looked like a long, skinny razorblade. There were no dull edges on it—all four were razor sharp.
He couldn’t have thrown it. He’d shot it.
Every day, new weapons and ways to execute them were created. Every single day.
This was one she hadn’t seen before…and one she wouldn’t mind getting her hands on. Her crew could use this type of weapon.
She had her very own assassin. “Sweet,” she said.
Later, she’d discuss her hit man with the crew, Rice, and Elizabeth, and they’d figure shit out.
She wasn’t worried. She was curious.
And a niggling thought kept occurring to her. That somehow, the memory-wiped shifters and her assassin were connected. After all, they’d both started around the same time.
Maybe they were connected to the church, but she doubted it. She didn’t get a COS feeling from either one of them.
She dropped the blade into a leather bag, draped it over her shoulder, and went out to lend a hand to the people of River County. And, if she had a chance, kill any slayers who remained.
The night seemed to last an eternity, but as the sun rose to cast a weak light over the city, Rice called her in.
She walked into the building, the scent of coffee hitting her even before Ellie ran around the corner to meet her, a huge mug in his hand.
“Bill said you were on your way.” He gave her the coffee, then wrapped his arms around her.
She didn’t mind the pain from the fang inside his shirt—she was simply too tired to care. As soon as he released her she turned up the cup and gulped down half the coffee. “Good,” she groaned. “So good.”
Ellis updated her as they walked to Rice’s office. “Raze will be okay. I feel so badly for him. All those burns.” Ellis shook his head, then shuddered before continuing. “Lex is doing great. When I called to check, the nurse said Lex was telling Raze jokes to see if she could get him to smile.” He grinned at her. “I know what would make him smile.”
Rune winked at him. “And the others?”
“Jack and Owen are here—they’re in with Bill drinking gallons of coffee.”
“Strad?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure where he is.”
“Here’s what we know,” Rice said, when Rune and Ellis walked into his office. He ran a hand over his face. His eyes were bloodshot, the circles underneath them so dark they made him look like he’d been punched. Maybe he had. “Slayers are dead, dying, or escaped, but they are no longer in River County. We did it, despite our governor’s refusal to send in the National Guard.” He smiled at each of them.
“What about the slayer’s doctor?” Rune asked. “Johnson. Any sign of him?”
Rice pursed his lips and shook his head. “It’s going to be a good while before I have a tally of every person affected by this attack.”
Elizabeth walked into the room. “I apologize for being late.”
Rice’s phone rang and he excused himself to answer.
“Fie okay?” Rune asked Elizabeth.
“Yes, thank you.”
“George?”
Elizabeth’s smile lit up her face. “That’s why I’m late. George woke up.”
“That’s great,” Rune said.
“He went back under.” She accepted the cup of coffee Ellis handed her, taking a sip before continuing. “But I’m optimistic.”
“Did he say anything?”
“He asked for his mother.” Elizabeth’s smile dropped. “Then he seemed to remember what happened.”
“Poor little boy,” Ellis said.
They were all silent.
“What about the memory-wiped shifters?” Rune asked, finally. “Anything new with them?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “They remember nothing about their pasts or what happened to them. One of them did remember his first name though. That’s a start. Maybe their memories will come back and we can figure out what happened to them.”
“Any signs of abuse?”
“Needle marks,” Elizabeth said. “But their lab work came back clean. No drugs that we could find.” She frowned. “We still have to order more tests. Some scans. The female had a burn mark behind her left ear.”
“And you can’t say doctor without them going nuts,” Rune said.
Strad walked in, and the tightness in her chest eased.
Bill hung up his phone. “I just got word there was another murder. A couple of cops found a body tortured and nailed to the back of an old gas station.”
“In the Moor?” Owen asked.
“Nope,” Bill answered. “This one is right in the middle of Spiritgrove.”
“When?” Strad asked.
Rune looked at him and found him watching her. He winked, and she smiled slightly, unable to help herself. Then she cleared her throat and studied her hands.
“I don’t know,” Bill said. “With the chaos in this city, it’s amazing the body was noticed at all. Our people are a little busy right now, but we’ll put him on ice until we get a chance to look at him.”
“Maybe COS did it before the attack,” Rune said, “and it’s just now being discovered.”
Rice’s eyes were bright. “I’ll tell you this. COS is done. They might not know it yet, but they’re done—and not just in our city.” He beamed. “In our world.”
“I’m not convinced the church is ever going to die out completely,” Rune said.
“Right now, you don’t need to worry about anything other than going to sleep. Go home, get some rest. All of you. I’ll see you back here in the morning.” He looked around at all of them. “Good work, Shiv Crew. Good work. You have my thanks.”
But they didn’t need any special thanks.
They were Shiv Crew.
It was what they did.
Epilogue
“I don’t see you for years,” the man said, his grim, tattooed face unmoving. His brown eyes were emotionless, with not so much as a tiny gleam to make them look anything but dead.
“I need a favor,” Rune said, quietly.
“Why should I do you any favors? You the bitch help put me here.”
She smiled. “Are you go
ing to hold a grudge, Leon? You may get out someday. You’ll need a friend.”
He snorted and looked down his nose at her. “You no friend of mine, Alexander.”
“Think about it, dude. I’ll owe you one. And I always pay what I owe.” The words made her think of Cree Stark, and she wondered for a moment if she wasn’t selling her soul to the devil—or Leon Lafitte—just as Cree had sold hers to COS.
“I see you on TV,” he said, slowly. “I hear bad, bad things about you.”
“No doubt they’re all true.”
He contemplated her for two long minutes without speaking.
She waited silently, letting him think.
Finally, he ran his hand over his bald, inked head. “What you want?”
She glanced around, meeting the cold gaze of one of the guards. He held her stare for a second before looking away.
She leaned forward. “Come closer, Leon.”
He slid closer, a light of curiosity in his eyes. “What?”
“You’re still in contact with Annie.”
“Yeah. So? She never getting out. At least you don’t put her in prison—she have killed your ass by now.”
Again, Rune smiled. “Does she still think you’re the center of the universe?” Knowing she did.
“Always will,” he said, leaning back and crossing his arms. “Me and Annie…” He trailed off and looked away from her, as though she might see the truth of his feelings in his eyes.
She didn’t need to see. Leon and Annie’s obsession for each other was legendary. For them, there was nothing else. “I need you to convince her to do something for me.”
Then it was his turn to smile. It wasn’t a nice smile. “If I do this thing for you, you owe me for the rest of your life.”
“I’ll owe you,” she said, “for the rest of your life.”
He frowned.
“Well?” she asked.
He stood, and two guards started toward him, almost too casually. They knew what Leon was capable of—maybe even more than Rune did.
Just as the guards reached him, he leaned over to murmur, “I get it done.”
Yeah, she’d sold her soul to the devil.
But in the next few days, or weeks, or maybe even months, she’d get a phone call telling her the deed had been done.
And she’d have sold her soul twice for that.
New Regime
By Laken Cane
Table of Contents
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Part Two
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Part One
Magic
Chapter One
“Let me know,” Ellie said. ”I have transport and medical on standby, half a mile from you.”
Rune probed the shadows with her narrowed, Other gaze as Ellie’s quiet voice slid into her ear. He was safely ensconced in a control room in the new Annex building miles away.
She’d finally gotten accustomed to wearing a headset but it had taken a while. The techie guys had managed to create an earpiece she was comfortable with, and if she was being honest it made communication a million times easier.
Still, she rebelled against the changes the Annex kept shoving at the crew. She didn’t like the new regime, or the secrecy, or the feeling that Shiv Crew was somehow less significant than they’d been with RISC. And she couldn’t shake her mistrust of the Annex.
Eugene Parish made her uncomfortable, and she wasn’t exactly sure why. It was a gut feeling that wouldn’t go away, and she’d learned to trust her gut.
The Annex had taken over, and not slowly. Once they’d decided RISC was worth their notice, they’d taken control.
Had taken right the fuck over.
“I see movement,” Jack murmured. “At the back. One of them is coming out for a bathroom break.”
She winced at his voice, which wasn’t as silky smooth as Ellie’s. Jack wasn’t a whisperer and his deep, rumbling tone tunneled into her brain like a jackhammer through rock.
“I’m on my way,” she said.
With Owen and Lex at her side she loped noiselessly toward the back of the old slaughterhouse, the same building to which Lara Book had been nailed by COS.
The crew had the slaughterhouse surrounded. The killers weren’t getting away. Not this time.
“Go in soft,” she murmured. “Don’t spook them and give them a chance to off the girl.”
At the corner of the building she slowed and crept in, hugging the wall as she made her way closer to the men they’d been chasing for two days.
Those men had hacked their way to Ohio after leaving piles of murdered females in Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Not all the bodies had been found.
Then they’d left at least three dead girls in two Ohio counties before they’d made the fatal mistake of taking on Spiritgrove and Shiv Crew.
The assholes were about to go down.
The human assholes.
One perk of belonging to the Annex was that human law enforcement couldn’t force the crew off cases involving humans. They had to share, at the very least.
Parish and his second in command, a withdrawn woman named Iris, ruled the River County branch of the Annex calmly, but firmly. Iris had only approached the members of Shiv Crew once, and Rune had a feeling that was because Eugene Parish had insisted.
Still, unfriendly as she was, she wanted what they all wanted—to get equality for Others and to take out the bad guys.
These particular bad guys had a nasty habit of picking up female Other runaways and prostitutes and doing very bad things to them.
Rune shook her head, hard, to dislodge the sudden vivid image that shot through her damaged mind. The memories of her rape were sometimes hard to ignore, to push away, to hide.
“Stop,” she whispered.
“Rune?” Strad’s voice was low, but worried.
“Close in,” she said.
“We’re in position,” Raze said. He and the twins wouldn’t let anyone escape through the front, if by some chance the slimy snakes managed to slither past Rune.
And that wasn’t going to happen.
“Let’s get the fuckers,” she muttered. “Alive, if possible.”
Not that she cared if her crew killed the bastards, but Eugene frowned upon executions that might bring his organization under scrutiny. The Annex didn’t want publicity—good or bad.
She ran, but didn’t release her claws until she spotted the guy pissing into the bushes.
She growled.
“Rune,” Ellis reminded, his voice louder, “alive.”
“I got it,” she said.
The man turned toward her, likely spotting the blur of motion from his peripheral vision as she ran at him. His dick was still in his hand. “Wha—”
Her entire body shuddered as she sliced through his neck with her lethal claws.
He fell, blood spraying.
“Shit,” Jack said, running up behind her.
“Rune,” Ellis wailed.
She lifted an eyebrow. “Sorry. Let’s go in and get the rest of them.”
“Alive?” Owen grinned.
“Yeah.” Then she shrugged. “At least one of them. We need the locations of the unrecovered bodies.”
They followed her through the doorway at the back of the slaughterhouse—Owen, Jack, Lex, and the berserker.
“We’re coming in through the front as soon as you have them cornered,” Raze said.
The men in the large, echoing room jumped from the floor—she counted seven of them in the flickering, dim lights they’d set around the place.
She didn’t spot the victim.
The fugitives had guns, of course, and the crew had gone in prepared. Another perk of the Annex—they had an entire lab staffed with carefully chosen people who created weapons and protection from weapons.
And those people loved their jobs.
Rune and the crew had been given multi-threat vests created especially for Annex ops. Completely bulletproof? No. But they were resistant to bullets, blades, fangs, and claws.
Rune didn’t have to worry about a mere bullet killing her, but enough bullets could certainly cause her a lot of pain and slow her down. Slow her down enough for capture, even. And there was nothing worse than capture.
The fugitives dove for cover and opened fire.
Raze and the twins entered the room but Rune was almost immediately distracted as a man arose from behind one of the piles of metal.
He held a girl in front of him, one arm around her neck, the other holding a gun to her head.
