Wormwood Echoes

by Laken Cane

  She leaped to the top of the car and hit Karin like a train, sending the other woman through the air. She thought she heard bones crunch as Karin crashed to the pavement below.

  As Karin lay battered on the ground trying to remember how to breathe, Rune stood over her, trying to remember how to think.

  Ellie.

  Karin had him stashed away somewhere, and she’d never trade him for Lex. No matter what she said, Ellie was…

  No. No.

  Finally, Karin was able to speak. “You’ll bring hell down on your world if you kill me.”

  “We live in hell, asshole. We’re used to it.” And before Karin could say another word, Rune dragged the woman to her feet. “The end.”

  “I underestimated you,” Karin said, still showing no fear. “I never thought you’d kill one of yours for one of mine.”

  “Bitch,” Rune said, “I told you. Lex isn’t yours. Lex is mine.”

  “And Ellis? You’ll let him die to keep Lex from me?”

  Rune ignored her and pushed the woman through the milling Annex Ops. She was taking Karin to Lex, as she’d promised.

  Lex needed to see her mother. She needed to kill her.

  Once and for all.

  The berserker was suddenly beside her. “I kept one of them alive.”

  She nodded. She’d known he would. No slayer would keep Karin’s secrets when the berserker was torturing them out of him. “Let me know the second you find Ellie’s location.”

  Karin laughed.

  The rest of the crew walked behind Rune and Karin. Even the twins. They’d stay with Lex. They’d help her do what she needed to do. What all three of them needed to do.

  As soon as they entered the building, Karin jerked free of Rune’s grip with a sudden, surprising ferocity, nearly ripping Rune’s fingernails off, and sprinted down the hall.

  Rune overtook her in seconds. She threw her to the floor and almost casually stomped the malevolent woman’s ankles, first one and then the other, shattering them. She ignored Karin’s screams and looked at Raze. “Carry it.”

  He dragged Karin off the floor and tossed her over his shoulder.

  When she wouldn’t stop screaming and struggling and biting, Owen tapped her skull with the butt of his gun.

  And at last, there was silence.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Eugene stood in the hallway with five men at his back, blocking her path. His face was pale, his eyes as black as cigarette burns in an old couch. He looked only at Rune. “I need her, Rune. She’s too valuable for you to kill.”

  Anger flared, and just as quickly fled. “I’m taking her to Lex, Eugene. Don’t try to stop me.” Her voice was toneless.

  “You can have her when I’ve finished with her,” he said.

  She became aware, slowly, of the anguish in his eyes. “What has she done to you?” she asked him.

  He tightened his lips. “Most of the people in this building and all the Others in this town have been affected by Karin Love.”

  “Not the way Lex was affected,” Denim snarled. “Not even close.”

  Levi said nothing, surely tormented by thoughts of his love in the hands of COS.

  “Move your men out of my way, Eugene,” Rune said.

  “You will kill Karin,” he snapped, “and allow Ellis to die?”

  She flinched. “She won’t tell me where he is no matter what we do. You know that.”

  “But I can get the cure out of her,” he said. “I can save the Others with this woman. It’s not just about Lex, Rune.”

  “Move out of our way,” Jack said. “If you get this hag, she’ll escape, she’ll live, and she’ll go on to torment the world.” He took a step forward, slightly in front of Rune. “That is what will happen. You won’t get your cure and we won’t get Ellis’s location. That’s the truth.”

  “Back away,” Eugene said.

  The ops at Eugene’s back lifted their guns and trained them on Jack, but he ignored them. “You’ll leave Rune the fuck alone.”

  But Rune turned her head slowly to look at him. “Jack,” she said. “What if he can get the antidote? What if he can get Ellie’s location?”

  What if she didn’t have to go to Skyll?

  “Let’s take her to Lex,” Raze said. “At least let her be in on the decision. Maybe she can touch this garbage and get the information that way.”

  Rune put her hand to her chest. “Fuck me,” she exclaimed. “Of course. Why wouldn’t Lex be able to read her?”

  She started toward Eugene’s men, hopeful. “Eugene. I’m taking this bitch to Lex. Get your boys out of my way or I’ll drop them where they stand.”

  Lex could do what torture couldn’t. She could read nearly anyone by touching them. She could surely read her bitch of a mother.

  Karin had regained consciousness but kept her mouth shut. Maybe she didn’t want another concussion.

  Eugene waved his men away, a gleam of hope in his eyes.

  “Where are Bill and Elizabeth?” Rune asked him as they made their way down the hall.

  “My ops took Elizabeth and Fie to a safe room. Bill has been unreachable for the last three hours.” He glanced at her, silently reminding her of her agreement to follow Bill.

  “One disaster at a time,” she murmured.

  Before they reached Lex’s room, three ops came from the opposite direction, pushing Lex in a wheelchair.

  “Hang back,” Rune told Raze. “Knock her out again if she opens her mouth.”

  Jack took the wheelchair from the ops, then pushed Lex into her room.

  “What happened?” Lex asked. “No one would tell me anything.”

  Her eyes were sluggish, listless. Her skin was so hot it had begun to split and peel.

  And wafting from her was just the slightest hint of the ripe, unimaginable scent characteristic of those with the disease.

  She had no idea Karin was near, and that scared the hell out of Rune. Lex was worsening quickly, and if her abilities were compromised, she might not be able to read her mother.

  Rune knelt down beside the chair and took Lex’s hands in hers. “Do you want me to feed you?”

  Lex wet her lips. “No. It wouldn’t help. I can feel the rot spreading through me. It’s a bad feeling, Rune.”

  Rune closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Lex.”

  “Are you sick? Do you feel it?”

  “No. Not yet.”

  “Super Rune,” Lex whispered. “Holder of demons and berserkers.”

  “And cowboys,” Owen murmured.

  Rune didn’t glance at him. “Karin is our prisoner,” she blurted. “I have her. I need to know what you want to do with her. She’s captured Ellis and I don’t know where he is.” And as she said it, it became more real. “God. She has Ellie.”

  Lex tilted her head, too dazed to fully comprehend Rune’s words. “What?”

  “Raze is holding her out in the hallway,” Eugene said. “Karin attacked the Annex and we’ve captured her. She claims she knows of the cure to the rotting disease.”

  “And Ellis’s location,” Rune said. “We need that, Lex. Can you read her?”

  “Oh,” Lex said, and leaned over to rest her forehead on the chair arm. “She’s here. It’s too late, then.”

  Rune’s stomach tightened. “Lex?”

  Lex straightened. “If she’s here, it’s because she wants to be here.”

  The crew looked at each other.

  “She came after you, baby.”

  “I can’t think,” Lex said. “My head hurts so much.”

  “Can you read her if we bring her in?” Eugene asked, impatient.

  “I can try,” Lex said, but she shuddered. “Don’t leave me alone with her.”

  “Never,” Rune said. She squeezed Lex’s hand. “We’ll all be right here.”

  “Lex,” Eugene said, putting a hand on the Other’s shoulder. “If you can’t read her, I’ll need to secure her and see if my specialists can get the information from her. Is that
okay?”

  “She’ll never die,” Lex said.

  “She’s not immortal.” Rune stood, but continued holding Lex’s hand. “I can kill her, I promise you.”

  “But I need to…talk with her before you kill her,” Eugene said. “The crew wants you to agree to that before I take her.”

  “You won’t get anything out of her,” Lex said. “No matter what you do. And if anyone is going to try to kill her, it’ll be me and the twins. Bring her to me.” She released Rune’s hand. “I’ll read her. For Ellie.”

  Rune pushed her fist against her stomach.

  Ellie.

  She left the room, dread lying like a rock in her stomach.

  “Lex okay?” Raze asked, when she reached him.

  Karin sat on the floor, her broken ankles out before her, hands fastened behind her with zip ties. She watched Rune calmly.

  Rune stared down at the woman. “She’s up to something.”

  Raze shrugged. “Maybe she had an agenda other than getting Lex, but it doesn’t matter. We have her. One way or another she dies tonight.”

  Rune nodded, relieved to see a little spark of uncertainty in Karin’s eyes. Rune wasn’t going to kill her right then, but Karin couldn’t know that. “The end of fucking Karin Love.”

  She couldn’t contain herself at the thought, at the reality of it, and shot out her claws.

  “If you kill me, you’ll never find out where your friend is,” Karin said.

  Rune leaned over and put a claw to Karin’s throat. “You won’t tell me anyway, and I really want to see your blood on the floor.”

  “I’ll tell you,” Karin said. “I’ll tell you, monster, because there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Rune straightened, her heartbeat so strong it hurt her healed stake wounds. “Tell me,” she whispered.

  Karin pursed her lips, then shook her head. “I was just fucking with you. I’ll never tell.” She grinned.

  Rage ripped through Rune, clawing her insides, screaming to be released. And it wasn’t just that Karin had Ellie. It was that Karin was calm and unafraid and Rune wanted her to suffer more than she’d ever wanted anything else in her life.

  So she sliced through Karin’s eyes.

  Karin’s screams didn’t really make her feel any better. She grabbed Karin by her hair and jerked her head back. “Now you know how Lex felt when you blinded her.”

  Only Karin would never know, not really, because Lex had been a child. Unprotected, unloved, abused. Karin was a horrific adult who knew the way the world worked.

  She felt the pain, and perhaps she felt some terror at having her sight stolen from her. But she would never feel what Lex had felt.

  Eugene rushed down the hall. “Rune,” he yelled. “You’re not to kill her.”

  “I didn’t kill her,” Rune said, but she was shaking from the effort it took her not to finish Karin right then and there.

  Eugene took her arm and urged her away.

  “Bring that thing to Lex,” he told Raze.

  So Raze grabbed the hysterical, injured woman by her collar and dragged her down the hallway, while Rune watched with claws ready and suspicion in her heart.

  Ten seconds later they entered the room with Karin, and Lex began to scream.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Lex,” Rune said, grabbing her shoulders. “She can’t hurt you.”

  Owen stood at the girl’s back, his blades out as he prepared for trouble. Levi and Denim wanted to shrink away, wanted to run from the room and get as far away from Karin as possible—Rune could see it in their faces.

  But they stayed put, tall, brave sentinels watching over their little Other.

  Lex quieted, slowly, shuddering. “She’s here.”

  “Lex,” Karin cried. “They hurt me. Oh God, baby, they hurt me.”

  Lex sobbed, a heartbreaking sound that must have echoed throughout the building. Maybe, Rune thought, it echoed throughout the world.

  The pain and fear in her cries were overwhelming to those who loved her.

  But worse than that was the need in her voice. No matter what her mother had done to her, she still, somewhere deep inside, wanted to know why. Wanted, even, the love that had been withheld from her.

  Maybe she even hurt for Karin.

  “Lex,” Levi cried. “Don’t. Don’t…”

  Don’t hurt.

  Don’t cry.

  But Lex could not be consoled. “I’d rather die,” she said, her sobs dwindling to weak whimpers. “I’d rather die. I can’t stand the pain.”

  The twins held her, Raze stood like a stone, frozen and helpless, and Owen waited with unreadable eyes to see how it would all play out.

  Rune wanted to take Lex’s hand and wrap it around Karin’s wrist, but nothing could have forced her to be the one to make that move.

  It was too cruel.

  Eugene did it for her. “Cut her restraints,” he told Raze.

  The moment Lex’s fingers made contact with her mother’s wrist, the little Other’s entire body stiffened. With her hand still attached to Karin’s arm, she flung herself backward so violently that the chair moved.

  “No,” she screamed, a long, drawn-out howl of anguish that let the others know, finally, that she wanted free of her mother.

  But she couldn’t pry herself loose.

  Raze grabbed Karin by her arm and tried to yank her away from Lex, but it was as though the two were glued together with something even stronger than Raze, and they couldn’t be forced apart.

  Lex’s eyes began to bleed.

  Blood leaked from the corners of her mouth, her nose, her ears.

  And she continued to scream.

  Rune didn’t think—she couldn’t think over the terror inside Lex’s screams. She fought through the fog in her mind, shot out her claws, and sliced off Karin Love’s head.

  The twins dragged Lex from the chair and fell to the floor with her, their arms wrapped around her, trying to protect her from whatever horror her mother had forced her to see.

  It was in the midst of that chaotic mess that Strad burst into the room, his spear out, eyes wild. He speared Karin’s headless body, right through the heart, as though he didn’t at first realize the woman was dead.

  Rune backed away and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the sounds and agony and the overwhelming, dismal feeling that once again, the wrong choices had been made.

  Lex stopped screaming all at once, but the blood continued gushing from her body. She opened her mouth and all that came out was a crimson rush.

  Somehow, Karin Love had managed to do exactly what she’d wanted.

  She’d killed Lex.

  Rune felt hands on her shoulders and turned. “Strad. It was a mistake.”

  He nodded. “Karin never had Ellis.”

  “What?” She grabbed his huge arms, unable to believe she’d heard him right. “What?”

  “Ellis is on his way in. He’d gone with his mother to Columbus hours ago. I had someone check, and your house was broken into. COS had planned to take Ellis, but he wasn’t home.” He leaned down to peer into her eyes. “Our Ellis is safe, Rune.”

  “And when they told Karin he wasn’t there, she went ahead with her plans as though she had him,” Jack guessed.

  “She was in a hurry,” Owen said, from behind the berserker.

  “Karin…”

  “Needed to be taken to Lex, and she couldn’t wait.”

  Rune wanted to fall to the floor, wanted to cry, to rage, to bring Karin back to life so she could kill her again.

  She only nodded.

  Karin had fucked them all.

  Since she’d ended up dead, none of them knew why.

  Rune walked to where the twins huddled around Lex and knelt down beside the three of them. “Ellis is fine,” she told Levi. “Karin didn’t have him. He’s on his way here.”

  He closed his eyes and nodded.

  “Lex,” Rune said. She pulled Lex’s hand to her arm. “Read me. You’re o
kay. Karin is dead.”

  Lex lay against Denim’s chest, her eyes closed, her lips parted. She breathed shallowly, but her bleeding had slowed to a trickle.

  She didn’t tighten her fingers around Rune’s arm, didn’t acknowledge her in any way. Lex wasn’t there.

  “None of us can bear to lose you,” Rune whispered. “Please, Lex. Come back.”

  “She’s so sick,” Denim said. “Karin made it worse.”

  “Karin made everything worse,” Levi said.

  Then the twins looked at each other. “Karin’s dead,” they said, at the exact same time.

  Rune glanced at the body. Eugene had already called techs to take it out, to take it, likely, to a lab where they could study her remains in hopes of finding something helpful.

  He looked at Rune. “Anything?”

  “She can’t talk yet,” Rune said. “I’ll let you know.”

  He nodded and left the room behind the techs who’d zipped Karin and her head into a white bag and hauled her away.

  “She’s gone,” Rune told the twins. “Finally. She can’t hurt you anymore.”

  Lex laughed.

  The laugh, weak and gurgling though it was, sent chills down Rune’s spine. “Lex?”

  Lex tried to sit up, but fell back, too weak. She groaned. “She’s got me. She’s got me now.”

  Rune began to shiver and couldn’t stop.

  She’s got me. She’s got me now.

  “Karin’s dead,” she said, almost angrily. “I killed the bitch.”

  Lex said nothing.

  It’d been too easy. Karin Love would never go easily, and it’d been too fucking easy.

  “Shit,” Rune said. “Could she really have wanted us to kill her?”

  “Better question,” Jack said. “How do we fight a fucking ghost?”

  “What does she want, Lex?” Strad took Lex’s hand. “Why would she want to die?”

  “I don’t know,” Lex muttered. “I’m going to be sick. Give me a bag.”

  Raze yanked a green plastic bag from the side table and hurried it to the blind Other. “Here.”

  But Lex didn’t throw up. She passed out.

  Ellis hurried into the room. “I’m here.”

  Levi jumped to his feet and raced to Ellis. He dragged Ellie into his arms, his breathing ragged. “God,” he said. “God, Ellie.”