by Laken Cane
They stared down at the box, sitting innocently in the middle of the moonlit road, nestled snuggly in a bed of white gravel.
“Don’t hesitate,” she said.
He crouched in front of the box, opened it, and lifted a long black splinter from the velvet-lined interior. He stood and waited for her to take off the vest she wore to protect her from the very thing he was about to push into her heart.
She looked at him. “Do it.”
He pressed the tip of the splinter above her heart. “Count of three.”
“One,” she began, and he shoved the splinter into her heart.
She staggered back, and she cried out at the pain, but only for a second.
Nikolai grasped her upper arms, gently, and lowered her to the ground. “You’re a remarkable woman, Rune Alexander.”
She’d have to be. She was handing herself over to Lee Crane.
And Lee was eager and full of greediness.
Rocks dug into Rune’s back as she lay alone, staring up at the cold moon. And finally, she began to shake.
The spike in her chest seemed to grow larger and harder, and she couldn’t breathe through the pain. But she could hear.
Boots crunched on gravel, someone cleared his throat, someone sniffed. Someone whispered, and somewhere, someone wept.
Maybe that was her.
Berserker. Where are you now?
Was he shattered? Wild and wary like an animal that’d been hurt too many times?
Was he hers?
Lee’s men dumped Levi beside her.
He tried to speak but blood bubbled at his lips and gurgled in his throat. Rune kept her stare glued to his, wishing with everything inside her that she could touch him.
He worked his mouth for a few seconds before he was finally able to whisper her name. He moved his hand to hers.
He knew. He knew she’d need that touch.
Maybe even more than he did.
One of Lee’s men clicked on a flashlight and checked her wound, then murmured into a small mic. “It’s done.”
The other guy crouched down and slipped his arms beneath her. The world tilted and then, as he lifted her, she could no longer see Levi.
For a second, the man met her gaze. He said nothing, but he was gentle. He carried her carefully, but once, he stumbled just slightly. He glanced down at her, quickly. “Shit,” he whispered. “Sorry.”
“It’ll be easier if you don’t think of her as a person,” the other man said. “That’s what I do.”
“Man, you’re stupid as hell.”
They walked the rest of the way in silence.
Moments later, Lee Crane was peering down at her. “Put her in the back of the van and let’s bid a hasty farewell to this place,” she told him. “For now. When Eugene Parish has called his surviving ops home, you’ll return to prepare this land for me. It’s mine now. And with Rune Alexander at my side, no one will ever take it from me.”
She glanced at someone behind her, smiling. “And we’ll create for you the biggest, most wonderful lab you can imagine.”
“Ma’am.” One of her men cleared his throat, his deep voice rumbling into the night. “Do we kill the survivors when we take the town?”
“No, you do not,” Lee said, sharply. “We are not common murderers. You ask the survivors if they’d like to join us. We could use extra people on our cleanup and building crews. We’re always in need of more people. We don’t slaughter them.” Her voice had risen during the recital, and she seemed to realize she was getting a little too emotional.
She took a deep breath, then continued on more calmly. “You will drive through town. If you see survivors, offer them a chance to join us. If they decline, run them out of Killing Land. It belongs to me now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Those townspeople killed themselves, really,” Lee murmured. “They chose to stay and fight. Their choice.”
The leader of the Next had a conscience.
And it was guilty.
The cemetery was full of Next vehicles. Full of Next people who hadn’t been slaughtered in town.
Lee Crane was getting what she wanted. The doctor, Rune, the kill switch.
Killing Land.
Power.
The night silence was abruptly broken by the jarring sounds of Next vehicles roaring eagerly to life. They all wanted out of Killing Land.
The arrogant, narcissistic Lee Crane most of all. She wanted to abscond with her prizes.
Lee’s op placed Rune in the van, buckling her in after she was lying supine in a carpeted trench. He then cuffed her wrists with silver restraints that were bolted into the wall. The van was outfitted for restrained prisoners who couldn’t sit up.
The Annex had very nearly the same types of vans.
Then he slammed the back doors, and she was alone.
In the darkness.
With a splinter in her heart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It was a graveyard.
A fitting place for a slaughter. A perfect place for a capture.
But not hers.
Levi was safe.
It was time.
The van moved as Jill and Lee hurried into the backseat, along with the man who’d carried Rune up the hill. The driver and an op got into the front.
As soon as she was seated, Lee turned to peer at Rune through the partition.
“Go,” she told the driver.
Rune grinned.
She exploded from her prison of chains and kicked through the partition before the passengers had even quite comprehended what the hell was making all the noise.
The shock was still on their faces when she shoved her claws through the back of the driver’s neck. And then, as the op riding shotgun fumbled with his weapon, she took off his head.
Lee began screaming for her ops, then grabbed for her door handle as Rune turned on her.
There were three people in that backseat. Rune wanted two of them.
She punched Lee in the face, breaking her jaw and half her teeth, then turned to Jill. Dr. Johns.
Jill lay against the back of the seat, her hands over her face.
Rune pointed her chin at the op who sat with his back to his door, hands up, face pale. “You were kind to me,” she told him. “I’m going to give you a chance to get out of here. My people are out there, and they’ll kill you if they see you, so…” She shrugged. “Good luck.”
He fumbled for what seemed like five minutes before finally getting his door to open. He hesitated, despite his obvious fear. “Word is she’s been diagnosed with dementia,” he said. Then he fell out of the van and was gone.
That explained why Lee Crane had been so…off.
“Luck,” she whispered. She reached for the splinter—Gunnar’s fake splinter—and pulled it out of her chest. Damn thing hurt like a motherfucker, but it wouldn’t incapacitate her.
Damn ghoul. He really did think ahead.
Lucky for her.
She heard the shots and the yells of surprise and pain, but they were background noise. She wasn’t fighting in the graveyard. Not that time.
Her crew would take care of the remaining Next ops.
Rune had more important things to deal with.
She jumped from the van, the Next leader under one arm, the duplicitous doctor under the other.
Jack was waiting for her, standing against the side of the van, head swiveling as he guarded against threats that might have gotten too close to Rune.
“You could have told me,” he said.
“No time, Jack. Besides, someone had to call in reinforcements.” She smiled at him. “You wouldn’t have wanted to stake me anyway.”
“No,” he agreed, “but I do a lot of things I don’t want to do.” He grabbed Jill by the arm and slung her over his shoulder. “I didn’t know you carried a fake splinter.”
“Nikolai explained?”
“Yeah.”
“Is Levi going to be okay?”
“I don
’t know, but Denim came out of his…” He shrugged. “Whatever that was. He’s here now.”
Rune surveyed the hilltop. The Next was done. Those still living were running. They were done fighting.
And Shiv Crew let them go. Without Lee Crane, they were not a threat.
They gathered around her, her crew. Bloody and stern and satisfied.
Luciana Vega joined them, no less bloody and just as grim. Rune’s breath caught for a second when Leon slid in beside her. Something about his movements, sly and smooth, reminded her of the assassin.
His inked face was splattered with blood, but there was a light in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. He was happy.
Leon just needed a battle. A purpose.
But really, who didn’t?
Raze, Denim, and Roma stood together, and only Roma looked upset. Rune knew the girl wasn’t happy because as Rune’s self-appointed bodyguard, she felt she shouldn’t have been elsewhere when Rune had gone up the hill.
But Roma would get used to it.
“Shiv Crew,” Rune murmured.
They nodded.
“Let’s get these assholes to Eugene.”
“I want to see the look on his face when you hand him Lee Crane,” Raze said.
“He’s here,” Nikolai said, slipping from the shadows. “He flew in a few minutes ago.”
“Let’s get down there,” she said, but hesitated when she heard a familiar caw in the moonlit sky.
“Wonder why he didn’t come down to help,” Denim said.
She shrugged. “Maybe he knew he shouldn’t. Levi?”
“I don’t know. Medics have him. I call but they have nothing to say.”
“He’ll be okay.”
“Yeah.”
“Rune,” Roma said, and pointed.
Gunnar the Ghoul stood beneath a tree, his hair hiding half his face, his stare on the ground. Waiting.
She dropped Lee to the ground. “If she moves, kick her in the face. I’ll be right back.”
She walked to Gunnar. “Hey.”
“My splinter saved your life, then.”
She grinned. “Yup.”
“This day has been hard on you.” He lifted his stare. “It will get harder.”
“Always full of sunshine and good news.”
“When you have concluded your business with Eugene, you will go to the portal.”
She drew back. “Shit,” she whispered. “Gunnar, I shoved Will in.”
He nodded. “Do not worry overmuch. He wished to walk the path. You simply gave him permission to do so.”
“Permission.” She snorted, but her eyes were suspiciously damp. “I didn’t give him a choice.” She hesitated. “The berserker…”
It was his turn to sigh. “Remember my words, Your Brokenness.”
“You had a hell of lot of words. Might be a little hard to remember.”
“You will.”
She shrugged. “What’s at the portal?”
“Choices,” he murmured. “There are choices at the portal.”
She closed her eyes. “Fuck me.”
“You will go now.”
“Yeah.” She studied him for a long moment. “Will it always be there, Gunnar? The portal?”
“Perhaps. But it is a doorway into death. If the opportunity presents itself, you will close it.”
“All right.”
“Go,” he said, but gently.
She went.
And finally, she and her crew left the graveyard.
Cars were waiting at the bottom of the hill. Jack’s car, Raze’s truck, and a car she didn’t recognize. Leon climbed under the wheel, and Luc got into the passenger side.
Rune hesitated, watching them.
She’d invite them into Shiv Crew.
Maybe.
She and Jack put their two prisoners into the trunk of Jack’s car after cuffing both Lee Crane—though the woman still hadn’t fought her way to consciousness Rune didn’t fully trust that if she did, she might not find a way out of the trunk—and Jill, who hadn’t spoken a word and kept her eyes firmly shut.
Dawn came, turning the sky gold and orange and soft, and she suddenly longed for breakfast and coffee with an intensity that made her groan.
Eugene, standing with a little group of people, turned to watch the little caravan drive down the street toward him.
She sighed with the realization that it was almost over.
Almost done.
In the back of her mind, the berserker loomed large and silent, and she wanted nothing more than to find him. To examine him. To rediscover him.
But he waited at the portal, she was nearly certain.
At the portal with the choices.
Always the fucking choices.
Jack parked the car at the side of the street, and Rune climbed out, as weary as the rest of them.
Bill waited with Eugene, and when they saw her, they hurried toward her. Shiv Crew gathered around the car, waiting with her.
“Levi?” she asked Eugene, before he could open his mouth.
“He was beaten severely,” Eugene said. “He was…cut. His injuries are extensive.”
“Shit,” she whispered. “Show me where he is. I’ll feed him.”
“But he’s alive?” Denim asked, his voice harsh.
“He’s been beaten before,” Eugene said, calmly. “He is expected to make a full recovery.” He smiled.
The crew was too overwhelmed to say anything for a long moment.
“Rune,” Bill said, “when you get a chance, Ellis…”
“I’ll call him. He knows Levi will be okay?”
Bill nodded. “I told him myself.”
Rune took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Then, she turned to Eugene. “We have a gift for you.”
He swallowed a few times, then clasped his hands. “I had hoped you would.”
She gave Jack a nod and he popped the trunk.
Eugene stared down into the trunk, tears trailing slowly down his cheeks. She didn’t think he was aware of them.
“At last,” he said.
Rune didn’t know what the woman had done to Eugene, and right then, she didn’t care.
They were caught. There would be no kill-switched Others.
“The Next is dead,” she said. “One less enemy to worry about.”
But Eugene was doubtful. “Lee has a daughter. Maybe she’ll keep her distance. Maybe she won’t. But we’ll be here if she decides to avenge her mother.”
Rune shrugged.
Lee Crane and Jill were caught.
They were Eugene’s problem now.
He’d make sure they never again became the world’s problem.
“Go home,” he told them. “I’ll take care of everything else. Go home.”
“Eugene,” she said, “Tasha Ramsey is here. There’s something wrong with her. Will you—”
“Already taken care of, Rune. She’s been taken back to the Annex.”
Eugene’s special ops lifted the women from the trunk, and Rune watched them all walk away, her heart just a little lighter.
“I have to take care of something here,” she told them. “Then I’ll find my way home.”
“Levi?” Denim asked.
“Of course. I’ll bite him first. Then…”
“The berserker,” Jack said. He didn’t sound happy.
She nodded.
The berserker.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Roma didn’t cling when they reached the portal.
She sat down a few yards away, her back against a tree, facing away from Rune.
“I’ll take a nap,” she said.
Rune’s hands had begun to shake ten minutes before they arrived, and the coffee she’d grabbed at one of the improvised stations sloshed around in her stomach like clothes in a washing machine.
“I will always fucking catch you.”
The words echoed, but she couldn’t really remember what his hands had felt like when he’d held her.
Maybe because he wasn’t back for good.
Maybe because the path had done something unfathomable and unrelenting to him—of course it had—and he would never be the same.
Never be her berserker.
He was the twisted berserker.
And she needed to know what that meant.
But he was there.
He was there.
He stood before the invisible portal, the wicked, horrible portal that led to a path no one could walk, not really, his stare devouring her face.
He wasn’t just Strad Matheson. He was memories of better times, of pain, of love. He was part of her crew. Of Z. Of her journey.
He helped her find the silence.
She hadn’t meant to cry. Had forbidden herself to cry. Had forbidden herself to be needy and weak and hurt.
But she stopped walking, stared at him, and began to sob. She scrubbed bloody tears from her face, but they were unending and finally, she dropped her hands and let them come.
“Strad,” she cried, her voice thick. “I can’t take any more. There’s nothing left to help me.” She held out her bloody hands for him to see. “There’s no one.”
He strode to her then, his face full of storms and agony, and snatched her to him. His embrace was too hard, too tight, too unrestrained, and she had a fleeting thought and worry she never had with anyone else—the fear that he would break her.
But as she cried against his chest and clutched his familiar body to hers, she realized he already had.
Berserker.
It hardly mattered what—or who—would come after.
There would always be something incomparable between Rune and her berserker.
Always.
And finally, after ten minutes, or a thousand years, he pulled away. His eyes were shiny with unshed tears, tears that needed a release he wouldn’t allow, and his face was pale. Haggard.
“I won’t tell my story,” he told her, and his voice…raw, emotional, hoarse, full, somehow, of doom, made her want to break down all over again. “I can’t. But I am not the same.”
He took her hand and placed it over his heart. “In here, here I am the same. My heart beats because of you. For you. For us. The memory of your face was the only thing that kept me alive.”
She would never ask him if he remembered the first time he’d walked that unkind path. If he remembered being trapped with Brasque Dray inside the creature to which Will had tossed peanuts. If he remembered devouring Brasque Dray. If he…
