by Laken Cane
Shiv Crow—and friends—called with strident, mocking voices as they flew away. Rune watched them go, something inside her easing at the sight of the bird.
Many of the Skyllians had been dead, or dying, from wounds the crows had given them as they’d fallen.
Fires dotted the ground and the stench of burning flesh hung heavy in the smoky air.
Rune turned in a circle, taking it all in. Finally, she lifted a filthy, bloody arm and waited for the Landers to focus on her.
“Burn them all,” she ordered. “Mind the fires until every last piece of those creatures has been turned to ash. And when that happens, bury the ash. Do you understand?”
They nodded. “Yes,” she heard. “Yes, ma’am.”
“They’re yours now,” Gavin said, stepping up beside her. “Killing Land belongs to you.”
“Captain of the Landers,” Roma murmured. She nodded, satisfied. “It’s right.”
Rune caught sight of the doctor who’d hurried her into his cellar the day Gordon had escaped his dark prison. She strode toward him as he knelt on the bloody ground tending the humans.
As though she thought that Rune might kill the man for some unknown reason, Luciana Vega stepped in front of him.
“Hello, Alexander,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Where’s Jill?” Rune asked.
Luciana shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Rune stepped around the girl and stared down at the doctor as he bandaged a Lander’s arm. “What’s your name?”
He glanced up, then did a double take as he perused her wounded body with a doctor’s eye. “You’re injured.”
She hesitated as she absorbed the strange, almost devastating beauty of his eyes, more than a little disappointed when he looked away from her and back at his patient.
“Sorry,” Luciana said. “I thought you’d been introduced already. This is…” She shrugged. “Silas. If he has another name, he’s never shared it with any of us.”
“Silas,” Rune said.
He finished with his patient and got smoothly to his feet, his attention on another person moaning on the ground a few yards away. “Yes?”
“I might need you in the future. Don’t go anywhere.”
He walked toward his next patient. “Where would I go?”
She walked with him. “What kind of doctor were you?”
He didn’t look at her. “Cardiothoracic surgeon.” He paused. “Heart surgeon.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “I know what cardiothoracic means, Silas.” And she wondered what his real name was.
He knelt beside a moaning, bloody woman and opened his bag. “Whatever you want from me, Rune Alexander, the answer is no.”
She stared down at him for a long moment before turning to walk away. “We’ll see when the time comes,” she said. “We’ll see.”
Gavin Delaney stood in her path. “I need to talk to you.”
He was no longer the gargoyle, just the man. She wasn’t unhappy about that—the gargoyles still unsettled her, still made her uncomfortable.
Still made her angry.
“I gathered that when you landed on the hood of Jack’s car,” she said, and kept walking.
Skyll had spit creatures into her world.
Why? How?
And where the hell was Gunnar?
Gavin fell into step beside her. “Alexander. Stop walking.”
She stopped so suddenly that he took a couple more steps before he realized she’d halted.
“What do you want, gargoyle?”
He got to the point. “Eugene has Gage’s weapon and refuses to hand it over. I doubt you’ll succeed in freeing Gage, but you can get his weapon.”
She remembered Gage Delaney’s strange, twisted blade. It had attracted her, oddly enough. Still did. “You want a lot from me.”
“No one else can help.”
“What’s so special about that weapon?”
He shuttered his eyes.
She shrugged and started walking once again. “Keep your secrets, gargoyle. And Eugene can keep the blade.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “It belongs with the gargoyles. It’s not a weapon so much as a Key. It’s our protection.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Then it’s useless garbage. It didn’t protect any of you.”
He stared straight ahead. “It’s not protection against normal things or people.”
“The fuck, Gavin? Spit it out.”
“As long as the key is maintained by us, it will keep some very bad…people out of here.”
“Maintained?”
“Washed in a gargoyle’s blood.”
“Of course,” she said, dryly. “So who is it keeping out of Killing Land?”
“Not Killing Land. This world.” He blew out a hard breath. “I’ll give you the abbreviated version. The gargoyles have had that blade for centuries. An army used to walk the earth back when the earth was teeming with gargoyles. That army and the gargoyles were natural enemies. There was a final battle.” He paused, then continued. “We won. That blade gave them the ability to enter any world they wished, at any time. They were taking over. We had to stop them, and we did.”
“So you stole their key. What does it matter if Eugene has it instead of you?”
“Because I won’t let them get it back,” he said, grimly. “If the blade is not maintained, the army will return. And they will take the key. Eugene has no idea they’re even searching for it. Or who they are.”
“Neither do I. Who are they?”
“They are death—literally. The key will let them go wherever they wish, whenever they wish it. Believe me when I say that you do not want that army walking the earth.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t, or the gargoyles don’t? Tell me the truth, Gavin. All your talk about saving Gage. You weren’t really worried about getting him back, were you? You just wanted his weapon.”
He said nothing, just watched her.
She walked away, and he let her go.
Maybe she’d try to get the key back…but not for him. At least, not right away. There was something about it, something almost familiar.
And she wanted it.
“Jack,” she called. “Roma. Let’s go.”
“Where are you going?” one of the Landers called. “We need you here.”
“Yeah,” someone else said. “What are we supposed to do if more of those things fall out of the sky?”
“You’re supposed to kill them,” she said.
“You can’t just leave,” said an older man, his clothes bright with blood. “You can’t desert us now.”
“You brought them here,” someone else yelled. “You did.”
“What if they come back?” the first man asked.
She had no answers for them.
“Luciana,” she said. “You’re in charge. If any of you need me, Luc will call me.”
She didn’t want to feel responsible for Killing Land, but she did.
Luciana lifted her chin. “I’ll take care of them.”
There were only a few grumbles. Rune looked around at the bloody ground, the fires, and the humans who were suddenly looking to her for guidance. “I’ll be back,” she said, finally, and with Jack and Roma beside her, she walked away.
“The Landers don’t seem to hate me the way humans have come to hate the rest of the Others,” she noted. “They want me to lead them.”
“They don’t view you the same way,” Jack said.
“Maybe because they know they can’t kill her,” Roma said. “They’d rather have her on their side, protecting them.”
“Too bad all the humans don’t feel that way,” Jack said.
“Did the gargoyle destroy your car?” she asked Jack.
“No, but you almost destroyed the door.”
“The gargoyle could have squished the car like a melon with us inside it.” Roma tossed a glance back over her shoulder. “I don’t like him.”
“Perhaps you should kill him,” Rune said.
> Roma stopped walking. “Right now?”
“I’m kidding, Roma.”
Jack laughed. “You don’t kid a lot, Rune. You can see how she’d be confused.”
They were halfway back to River County when her phone rang.
“Alexander,” she said.
“Rune.”
“Hey, Raze. News?”
“Where are you? Ellis said you should’ve been here hours ago.”
“We got delayed.” She put the phone on speaker so she wouldn’t have to repeat to Jack and Roma whatever it was Raze was about to tell her.
“Trouble?” he asked.
“Handled. What’s going on?”
“I heard from one of my contacts about the doctor who worked at Forsythe Prison Camp.”
“Worked?”
“He’s no longer there. They haven’t seen him in a couple of years.”
“Name?”
“He doesn’t know. They called the doctor nicknames like Dr. Pain and Dr. Frankenstein. There were different stories circulating. They said he was caught doing some pretty bad things to Others who’d happened into the hospital where he worked. His license was yanked. He went to the prison after that. Or maybe he was moonlighting there all along.”
“No jail time?”
“Doubt it. They were Others. Although I’m sure he was screwing with humans too, or they wouldn’t have taken his license.”
“Hospital cover up. Where is he now?”
“No idea.”
“What hospital?”
“Don’t know that either. But my guy told me something that complicates matters.”
“What?”
“The doctor never showed his face. Always wore a mask when he was there.”
“Fuck,” Rune muttered. “So no one knows what he looks like. This asshole was prepared.”
“Keep digging. Call me if you find anything.”
“Will do.”
She hung up and called Eugene.
“Rune,” he bellowed. “You can’t just drag the crew off to Killing Land anytime you want. There’s work to be done here.”
“It’s the weekend, Eugene. You started making us take weekends off, remember?”
“Logan’s idea,” he grumbled. “I don’t take weekends off.”
She grinned. “I need a favor.”
“Yes?”
“A girl approached me and asked me to find her missing father. He’s an Other, and she’s believes he’s in trouble.”
“Your job isn’t in missing persons, Rune.”
“I know what my job is,” she said, impatient. “But I can do more than kill people. I promised to help this kid, and I’m going to help her.”
He sighed. “What do you need from me?”
“I need you to call downstairs and tell Ingrid to cooperate with me. I’m going to need some help finding this guy. I want to put her on the case and have her do some investigating.”
“Ingrid hates you.”
“Exactly, but she’s the best we have and I want to borrow her.”
“If this interferes with your work—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll ask her to help you in your search for your missing Other. Come in when you get back. I was informed about the battle in Killing Land, and I want your report before I send men out.”
“Eugene. Do not send men to Killing Land. We burned all the—”
He hung up.
“Fuck.”
“He’ll do it?” Jack asked.
“Yup.” She frowned. It’d be difficult to convince Eugene to leave the Landers alone. There was residue from Skyllian monsters there, and he was going to have lab ops gather it. He would have investigators questioning the people, and basically, the Annex was going to intrude upon Killing Land.
As soon as word got out, TV would send news vans and reporters would slither through town. There was going to be trouble, and she knew Eugene would give her a hard time when she had to go back to handle it.
“Let me know when you go to Forsythe,” Jack said. “I’ll tag along.”
“I’ll see if Logan can get me in.”
“Logan,” Jack said, eyebrow high.
Rune shrugged. “Might as well use her for something.”
“I’m going,” Roma said.
Rune sighed.
“Ingrid has a thing for Roma,” Jack told Rune.
Rune stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Oh yeah.”
Rune twisted around to look at Roma. “Your job will be handling Ingrid. No matter what Eugene tells her, she’s going to drag her feet every time I ask her to do something. You’ll work with her.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Well, you’re going to.”
Roma glowered. “I won’t be nice.”
“She won’t care,” Jack said, smiling.
Rune laughed.
Roma stared out her window and refused to say another word, pouting all the way back to River County.
Chapter Thirteen
She strode through the front entrance of the Annex building, impatient and irritated. She wanted to go home to see Kader’s fangs, not rehash the shit that had gone down in Killing Land. She’d handled it. End of story.
But Eugene wouldn’t let it go until she’d given him her report.
Jack had headed home, but her car was in the Annex parking lot with the keys in the glovebox, so she didn’t need him to drive her and Roma home.
“I’ll wait in the car,” Roma had told her. “I could use a nap.”
Eugene’s secretary looked up from her computer when Rune entered the room. She opened her mouth, then shrugged and let Rune go on without a word.
She rapped on Eugene’s door then pushed it open and walked inside. She wasn’t surprised to find Bill in with him.
“Rune,” Eugene said. “You’re covered with blood and God knows what else, and you smell like death. There are showers in the basement. Couldn’t you have cleaned up before walking into my office?”
She glared. “You made me come in. I want to go home to see my kid, not waste time getting pretty for you.”
“Fine. Have a…stand over there and tell me what happened in Killing Land.”
“Hey, Bill,” she said, going over to sit beside him.
“Rune.”
“I could use some coffee,” she said.
Eugene punched a button. “Bring coffee.”
“What happened out there, Rune?” Bill asked. “Is the portal spitting Skyll into our world?”
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. I looked up, and there were creatures from Skyll falling from the sky. We killed the motherfuckers and burned their bodies. There’s nothing else to report.”
“What happened with the creature in the caves?” Eugene asked.
The door opened and a woman walked in, bearing a tray of coffee and cookies. Logan Rees was at her heels.
Rune took her coffee, glaring at the perfectly dressed Logan as she drank. She didn’t want to talk about the creature, or Skyll, or anything else with Logan present, but she knew arguments would simply delay the inevitable.
“The creature is gone,” she said, finally. “Gunnar took it back to Skyll.” She would die before she told any of them that the berserker had been wrapped up in that deformed, meaty mess. “He hasn’t returned.”
“Will he return?” Bill asked, his stare sharp. “And do you know where the portal is?”
“The path is the reason that creature was so fucked up,” she told him. “No one can walk that path and survive it.”
“Except Gunnar.”
“I don’t know. I hope.”
Bill fell silent, but she could feel his stare, heavy and dark.
“There will be remnants of the monsters you fought,” Eugene told her. “I’m sending a unit to Killing Land immediately.”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Leave them alone, Eugene. If you want something, send a couple of my crew back to
collect it.”
“Why are you so protective of those people?” Logan asked. “Every single one of them is a criminal and a fugitive. They should be behind bars, not gathering together in an abandoned town where they can be coddled and catered to.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rune said. “This is where you shut the fuck up.”
“Rune,” Eugene said, calmly. “She’s right. I want the evidence those creatures have left behind, and I’m sending the lab to get it. Call them to prepare them if you must, but we are going in.”
She stood and then placed her empty cup on Eugene’s desk with exaggerated care. “I will call them.” She looked at Logan. “You should go with the ops. You know, since you think it’s somehow your business and you’re so interested and all.”
Logan pursed her full lips, lips that looked even larger because of the bright, thick lipstick she wore. “Maybe I should.”
“No,” Eugene said, dryly. “You shouldn’t.”
Logan crossed her arms. “Are you forbidding me to go to Killing Land?”
Rune hid a smile and walked quietly to the door. She glanced back at Bill, who simply shook his head and lifted his eyebrow.
Logan Rees wouldn’t fare well in Killing Land. She hoped Eugene would let her go.
“Rune,” Eugene called, before she could make her escape.
She sighed and turned to face him. “What now?”
“I’d like to visit the child.”
She frowned and shrugged. “Yeah, okay. So visit.”
He peered at her, curiosity in his eyes. “Ellis won’t allow it.”
“What?”
Bill nodded. “I called today, Rune. I asked Ellis if we might stop by and bring the baby some gifts. He didn’t think it was a good idea.”
She sighed. “I’ll talk to him. Come by when you want. Just call first to make sure she’s not asleep.”
“She’s beautiful,” Logan said. “Such a beautiful child.”
“A mini Rune,” Bill said, smiling. “Ellis would die for either of you. He just needs to understand that…” He hesitated, looking suddenly shy. “That he is not the only one.”
“Amen,” Eugene said. “Both of you are important to the future of this world. To us.”
She nodded, softening. “Thanks.” She glanced at Logan. “All of you. I’ll talk to Ellie.”
Eugene beamed. “I’m glad that’s settled. Now—”
