Wormwood Echoes

by Laken Cane

  She left them there and went to her car, unsurprised when Lex got into the passenger seat.

  “I’m swinging by Jack’s before I go to see Fie,” Rune told her.

  “Yeah.” Lex hesitated. “It’ll be okay, Rune.”

  “I know.” Rune glanced at her, relieved the little Other seemed better. Stronger.

  “If you go there,” Lex said, “you’ll be doing exactly what she wants you to do.”

  “No,” Rune disagreed. “If I go there, it’ll be because I have no choice. And when I get there…” She silently cursed the fear that rose up to choke her at the thought. “It’s time that bitch ends. And I’m going to be the one to end her.”

  Lex turned to stare sightlessly out her window, silent.

  Jack, Fie, Wormwood.

  Strad.

  She kept that string of words flowing through her head all the way to Jack’s house. It was the only thing that kept her from shattering into a million pieces.

  Jack lived in a tiny bungalow on a quiet street in the city, and when she pulled into his driveway, she realized she’d only been to his house twice since she’d known him.

  The first time he’d met her in his yard, and the second time he stood at the door and hadn’t asked her in.

  But when he didn’t answer her hard knock, she didn’t care that he might not want people inside his house.

  She kicked the door, just hard enough to force it open, but not hard enough to destroy it.

  She had a little restraint, despite the nervous energy begging her to let it out.

  “Jack,” she bellowed. “Where the fuck are you?”

  Maybe he’s dead.

  Shit. Stop being a paranoid little bitch.

  “Jack,” she yelled again, her mind noticing—and filing away for later—the dark emptiness of his living room. She charged down a skinny hall, pushing open the first door she came to. There were only two. The second one likely contained a bathroom, because the first one was Jack’s bedroom.

  “God,” she said, putting her hand to her nose.

  The room stank of whiskey, vomit, and mustiness.

  It smelled lonely and sad.

  Just a little fucking sad.

  She flipped his light on and stared around the room, shocked. “Shit, Jack.”

  He looked like he’d just fallen across his mattress in a drunken stupor. His legs hung off the bed, and he still wore his boots and jeans.

  The room contained only the bed and a dresser. The walls were bare. And though the room was neat, he’d flung his shirt to the floor, half covering some empty whiskey bottles.

  And his eye patch.

  She closed her eyes as pity reached out a relentless hand to choke her.

  It was good Lex had waited in the car. No one needed to see him like that.

  The bed dipped as she sat down beside his still form. She took the empty whiskey bottle from his lax fingers and placed it on the floor, then slipped her hand into his.

  “Jack,” she murmured. “Wake up, baby.”

  He didn’t stir.

  After a couple of minutes she got up, found the bathroom, and filled a glass with cold water. She carried it back to the bed and without hesitating, tossed the water onto his face.

  He came off the bed roaring, his hands reaching for weapons that weren’t there.

  She stood back against the wall and waited.

  He focused on her finally.

  “Fuck you, Rune,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Get the fuck out of here.”

  She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his body. She pressed her cheek against his flesh and again, she waited.

  At last, he sighed and hugged her to him. “How bad is it?”

  “It’s bad, Jack,” she said. “It’s pretty fucking bad.”

  And they stood there in each other’s arms until Lex sounded the horn, urging them to action.

  Chapter Eight

  “I don’t care about Bill fucking Rice,” Rune said, pacing Eugene’s office.

  “And I know you don’t mean that,” Eugene said, watching her.

  Rune rubbed the bridge of her nose. “The berserker is missing. The ghoul is missing. Fie is missing her face. And…”

  “What is it?”

  She blew out a hard breath. “Call in Elizabeth and Bill. I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”

  He didn’t hesitate.

  While Eugene was calling them in, she went into the hall to make a phone call.

  She called a floater she trusted and asked him to go to Bill’s house at night to watch for movement. If Bill left the house, or if anyone went into his house, the floater would call her.

  She had too much to do to watch the house herself.

  Bill and Elizabeth came in at the same time. They both looked tired, both looked worried. And Rune was about to add to it.

  Without further delay, she told them about the Other sickness spreading through the town. “Right now it’s quiet. That’s going to change real fucking soon.”

  “How could I not have heard about this?” Eugene picked up his phone, slammed it back down, and glared at her.

  “Your sources are not my problem,” she said. “What I need to know is if you’re going to help. I’m not purging any vampires. The Others need your help. Are you going to give it to them?”

  To us?

  He stared her down. “I’d rather have a world full of Others than a world full of humans, Rune. Of course I’m going to help.” He stood. “Now everybody out. I have to get to work on this before every fucking Other in the world is wiped out.”

  Rune didn’t move. “Eugene, if you—”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t even think of threatening me. You’ll just make me angry and waste time we don’t have.” He leaned over his desk, his eyes intense. “If you need me to give you a selfish reason, here it is. Without the Others, I’m no one. All this goes away.”

  He let her think about that for a second.

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  He straightened, once again picking up his phone. “Now get out and let me do my job.”

  “Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked, once she, Rune, and Bill were outside Eugene’s office. “Have you heard from Strad?”

  “Not yet.” And she wasn’t going to pull out her phone to check again. Not with Elizabeth and Bill watching her.

  “What can you tell us?” Bill asked.

  Rune eyed him, noticing the scratches on his neck and the bruise high on his cheekbone. “He was in bed with me. I went to sleep, then woke up to…laughter. We couldn’t see anyone, but I know it was Damascus.” She shook her head. “Her voice came through loud and clear.”

  “Be careful, Rune. If she wants you there…”

  Rune had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Fuck her.”

  “If there’s anything I can do,” Bill said, “let me know.”

  “I need to see Fie. Is she awake?”

  Elizabeth glanced at her wrist, then realized she wasn’t wearing a watch. “Yes. But please don’t upset her.”

  Rune didn’t bother replying. She probably would upset the kid, and Elizabeth knew that.

  Bill hurried on down the hallway, passing up Fie’s room without another word.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Rune asked Elizabeth. She toyed with the idea of telling the other woman that Bill was in trouble and that Eugene had asked her to spy on him, but decided against it.

  She needed more information before she confided in Elizabeth.

  “I don’t know,” Elizabeth answered. “He hasn’t been himself for a while now.”

  And she was too involved with little Stefanie to care.

  Bill was being neglected, really, by all of them.

  She could only wait to hear something from the watching floater.

  She wouldn’t know what to do without an overflowing plate.

  “Strad will be back, Rune.”

  Rune didn’t miss a step. “I know.” Of course he’d be back.
His mind wouldn’t survive without feeding his addiction. Not for long.

  But why had he gone? Why?

  And then she stopped walking, only marginally aware that Elizabeth was speaking to her.

  No.

  “I’ll prove myself to you, Rune. I’m stronger than my addiction. I’m stronger than your blood.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “Rune?” Elizabeth frowned. “What is it?”

  “He’s going to prove himself.”

  “Who?”

  “The berserker. He’s going to prove he’s stronger than the addiction.”

  He’d prove it, or he’d die.

  And no one was stronger than her fucking blood and bite. No one.

  Not even Strad Matheson.

  “Oh, God,” she said, again.

  But she wouldn’t let it break her heart.

  She wouldn’t.

  So she got angry instead.

  “I’ll never leave you, Rune.”

  “Not even if I want you to?”

  “Not even then.”

  Fucking liar.

  She pushed her fist into her abdomen so hard it hurt.

  It hurt so much.

  He’d lied to her again.

  Before she could lose herself in the misery of another betrayal, the nurse Elizabeth had left with Fie came running from the room.

  “Thank goodness you’re here,” she said. “She’s…” Then she shook her head and ran back into the room, Rune and Elizabeth at her heels.

  Fie floated above the bed, her arms and head hanging. Her hair waved gently.

  “Stefanie,” Elizabeth cried, and ran to her side.

  The child’s eyes were rolled back, her mouth slack. She made no sounds. She looked eerily similar to the way Lex had looked when the witch’s laughter had assaulted them.

  Rune ripped her phone from her pocket.

  “Lex,” she said, when the girl answered. “I need you in Fie’s room now.”

  “Impossible. I’m waiting for you outside Wormwood.”

  “What? How the hell did you get to Wormwood? Get your fucking demon on and fly your ass here, Lex. Do it now.”

  And she shook with the effort it took her not to call Lex’s demon.

  Because in that room, at that moment, she felt the presence of Damascus.

  She wasn’t sure if she needed Lex so desperately because she believed Lex might be able to keep her there, or if she was secretly afraid she’d be snatched away without Lex.

  Her demon.

  Or maybe she just needed a hand to hold.

  Chapter Nine

  But Lex wasn’t going to let anyone order her to become her demon.

  By the time she arrived at the Annex, Fie was curled into a little ball on her bed, asleep.

  Lex didn’t apologize, and Rune didn’t expect her to. She had nothing to apologize for. Her demon was her own.

  Interrogating Fie was out of the question, so Rune pulled Lex back out into the hallway.

  “I want you to stay away from Wormwood, Lex. That’s an order.” Because worse than the fear that she’d be taken was the fear that Lex would.

  If Karin Love was there with Damascus, and if she had any say in it, Lex would be taken.

  Lex shook her head, her braids flying, her eyes jerking. “No. If you try to sneak away someday I need to know where the portal is so I can follow. You’re never going to survive there without me. You just won’t.”

  “You can’t come with me.” Rune hesitated. “Your mother…”

  “Yes, Karin Love might be there. And I proved I can handle that bitch.” Then it was her turn to hesitate. “But don’t let the twins get involved. They can’t.”

  Shit. She didn’t want to risk Lex. But…

  “Back to Wormwood?” Lex asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “The portal is there, Rune. We just have to find it. I can get us in—I’m sure of it.” She paused. “Pretty sure.”

  “Lex, I don’t want to lose you.” And I don’t want to go to that fucking world.

  She had a bad, bad feeling.

  Chances were high that she wouldn’t make it back.

  Lex ignored her words. “He’ll be back.” She shot out her hand and wrapped her fingers around Rune’s wrist. Then, “He’s not lost to you.”

  Rune’s stomach tightened. “I can’t imagine a world without the berserker.”

  Lex hesitated, then blurted, “Some of the Others in the graveyard were sick.”

  Rune shuddered and pulled out of Lex’s grip. “I know.”

  “Do you think—”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything except Strad and Gunnar are missing and no matter what the fuck else happens…” But she didn’t know what to say.

  Lex nodded. She kept pace with Rune’s frenzied stride all the way to the car, keeping whatever other thoughts she had to herself.

  When they pulled up to the gates of Wormwood, Rune sat staring through the windshield at nothing. “I can’t feel him anymore,” she said. “I can’t feel him.”

  Lex opened her car door and jumped out, then stuck her head back in to reply. “Let’s get him back and you can feel him all you want.”

  “Yeah.” Rune shook her head once, hard, and then grinned at the little Other. “Let’s get him back.”

  Jack, the twins, Owen, and Raze all stood outside Wormwood. She shot out her claws as she walked toward them. She gave Raze a sharp glance. “You said you were going to take care of Annex business. What the hell are you doing here?”

  “We know you, Rune. And we’re not letting you do this on your own.” He looked at Lex. “Neither one of you.”

  She wasn’t surprised. They were Shiv Crew, and they’d never once let her take on a job without them, no matter how risky it might be to them. “I’m not going anywhere—but I need to know where an entrance is. Just in case.”

  They didn’t seem mollified.

  “Watch out for sick Others, boys,” she went on. “I don’t know if their virus or infection or whatever the fuck it is makes them mean or just sick, but be careful.”

  “So what are we looking for?” Raze asked.

  “Lex thinks the way to Damascus is in Wormwood. I have no idea what to look for.”

  “Don’t you think we’d have seen it by now if the door or window or whatever the hell it is were here?” Levi asked. “If you chase this thing down, you’ll be making a mistake, Rune.”

  She stopped just inside the gates and turned toward them. Searching for the portal would keep her mind off the berserker. And the rot that even then might have been growing inside her. “Maybe we should look for Strad as well.”

  She closed her eyes, wishing she could call the words back.

  No one said a word.

  “Fuck you,” she said.

  “Strad can take care of himself,” Owen said, his voice bland. “If there’s a battle he needs to fight, he’ll fight it. Maybe he’ll win it. And if he wants to, he’ll find his way back. But Damascus. Even if she has your blood, or anything else, she’s not worth risking you over.”

  “She can’t come back to you,” Levi said. “So she’s trying to lure you there. Leave her be, Rune.”

  Denim stared down at her, his scar vivid against the paleness of his face. He said nothing, but he didn’t have to.

  She knew they all believed she would be foolish to risk herself. And them.

  And for what?

  God, I wish I knew.

  But she felt it like a poison in her veins. She needed to go.

  That need got stronger by the minute.

  It had nothing to do with want. She didn’t want to go.

  “Besides,” Jack said, adding his voice to other naysayers. “There are battles here for you to fight. Leave Damascus to her world and worry about your own.”

  But maybe that world was her own.

  That was the pull. That was the need.

  To find herself.

  Maybe, to go home.

&
nbsp; Just for a little while.

  But the part of her that felt the call was finally choked and smothered and kicked away by the part of her that viewed Damascus and the other world with terror. She didn’t want to leave the world she knew and those who loved her.

  Those she loved.

  No call was stronger than that.

  Eventually she might be forced to go. But until then, she was staying the fuck put.

  That decision made her feel a little better.

  “Okay,” she said, and she almost smiled at their surprise. “Let’s get out of here. The Annex has some jobs for us.”

  “We can search for Strad,” Lex offered.

  Rune hesitated.

  “No,” Raze said. “He’s on his own.”

  “You’d do it if any one of us went missing,” Lex said. “You haven’t accepted the berserker yet. Not completely. You still don’t trust him.”

  “And you do?” Levi asked her.

  The twins were not over Strad’s part in their time on the mountain.

  Lex nodded. “I do. The point is, he’s crew. He’s Shiv Crew. Unless he’s kicked out, you need to give him everything you’ve got. You’d do it for me and I’m Karin Love’s daughter.”

  Raze gazed at her, almost, but not quite smiling. Raze wasn’t a smiler. “You’ve never given us reason not to trust you, girl. Strad Matheson has.”

  He was right.

  “Let’s fight for whatever we need to fight for,” Jack said. “I say we leave Strad to his shit. But if he comes back and needs us, then we’ll fight for the fucking berserker.”

  Before Rune could reply, Lex gasped and spun around. “He’s here,” she said.

  Rune’s heart leaped and she turned in a circle, trying to see what the blind Other saw. “Strad?”

  “No,” Lex replied. She stood still and pointed toward the trees. “Gunnar.”

  Chapter Ten

  And he wasn’t alone.

  “Gunnar,” Rune cried, forgetting, for one brief second, the witch, the berserker, and the rotting sickness.

  She loped toward the ghoul, who stood like a skinny, dark sentinel just inside the tree line.

  A woman stood with him.

  “Gunnar,” she said again, reaching him in seconds. She grabbed his thin shoulders and shook him a little too hard. “Damn you.”

  “Your Highness,” he whispered.