by Laken Cane
Strange Trouble
By Laken Cane
Copyright © 2014 Laken Cane
All rights reserved.
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, association with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. Ebook copies may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share with a friend, please buy an extra copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
For more information about the author, you can find her online at
www.lakencane.com,
www.facebook.com/laken.cane.3,
www.twitter.com/lakencane,
www.amazon.com/author/lakencane
Dedications
I want to dedicate this book to the following people. You’ve all touched this series in some way—by answering questions, helping me get the word out about the crew, being the most awesome of fans, or by being super supportive. And sometimes you will write something so perfect about my books that I print it out and read it every single day for encouragement. You are very much appreciated.
Cheryl Bennett
David Bunch
Cheryl Carpenter
DeLane Corbin
Tiffany Dahl
Elaine Geight
Jerah Johnson
Lise Lotte
Pamela Meade
Merrylee
Tammi Porche
Jamie Lee Smith
Starla Stimmer
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
Part Two
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
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Part Three
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
About Laken Cane
Part One
Attrition
Chapter One
Dozens of zombies surrounded them.
“Don’t let any of the fuckers bite you,” Rune said, her heart racing, “unless you dig that particular rotting skin look.”
“Sexy,” Z replied. He held two long silver blades, his eyes watchful and his body still as he waited for Rune’s signal.
“Zombies,” Lex muttered. “I hate zombies.”
Lex’s vibrations were so hard Rune could almost feel them. She glanced at the blind Other. “You doing okay, baby?”
“She’s fine,” Raze growled. “Now, Rune?”
Rune grinned and shot her claws through the tips of her fingers. “Let’s kill some fucking zombies.”
Jack was the only one of the crew missing, and that was because Rune had sent him back to Spiritgrove for a flamethrower. They’d have brought the flamethrower with them if everyone they’d talked to in Rock County hadn’t lied about what was waiting there.
Zombies.
She ignored the screams and the blood and went to work, doing exactly what she’d told her crew to do—killing the zombies.
Lex fought beside her, mirroring Rune’s movements as though she were an extension of her captain. It was an oddity Rune didn’t question—it worked.
Technically, Lex couldn’t see.
At least not with the eyes her mother, the Church of Slayers founder, had destroyed when Lex had been a child.
But Lex could see.
And she could fight.
The berserker roared his way through the crowd of zombies. His size and his muscles were intimidating. His rage was legendary.
He wielded his long silver spear the way Rune used her claws—like it was part of him. Zombies fell beneath the fury that had grown even darker because of the deaths of his wife and child.
And because of Rune.
Let me in, Rune.
She shoved those thoughts away and focused on the zombies. Killing. Killing was what mattered.
And protecting.
They were Shiv Crew, and that was what they did.
Rune figured the Rock County officials had been too afraid to report the zombies. After all, the military had been known to destroy entire cities over an infestation. Even if they controlled the zombies and got the humans to safety, those humans would endure hell before they were declared healthy and virus-free and sent out to find new homes in new cities.
But now the zombies were out of control and spreading. Every graveyard in the county must have been emptied.
How it’d started she didn’t know.
Yet.
Z plunged his blade into a zombie’s belly and jerked upward, unzipping the monster like a hideous dress. And when the zombie leaned forward and put his hands on his ruined midsection, Z took his head.
Rune saw other things in the few seconds it took them to occur, but mostly she was busy taking zombie heads herself.
And trying not to get bitten.
A few of the zombies seemed almost…alive. They moved with speeds normal zombies did not possess, and had a spark deep inside their eyes the other zombies lacked.
Luckily, most of them were lumbering, dull zombies—the kind that could only overwhelm the humans with sheer numbers or dumb luck.
The air was thick with the strong scent of death and decay. A curtain of blood hung in the air, shocking Rune almost enough to make her lose her concentration. The zombies were bleeding. A lot.
She spun and sliced her claws through a monster’s neck. She had a second to watch, stunned, as blood spouted, a geyser of red that sprayed her skin and clogged her nostrils.
Blood.
Why were some of the zombies bleeding?
The dead didn’t bleed. Not like that.
She screamed in rage and terror when a zombie latched onto her with his strong teeth. The strip he took off the back of her shoulder would have fed half the zombie population for a week.
The pain was immediate and sharp, but she was in full battle mode and a wound wasn’t going to stop her.
But she’d been bitten.
“Shit, Rune,�
�� Lex yelled. “No!”
They kept fighting, all of them. They could do nothing else.
If anyone could handle a zombie bite, Rune could. She wasn’t human—not fully human. And Others couldn’t be infected by zombies.
She hoped.
She decapitated two more zombies before the berserker waded through the monsters and the blade-wielding crew to reach her.
He slung one monster out of his way then drop kicked an elderly zombie so hard the white-haired hag nearly broke in half.
“Strad,” Rune warned. “Don’t.” But in the melee, he wouldn’t have heard her. And he wouldn’t have listened anyway.
Damn the berserker for always treating her like she needed tending. She was so not a delicate flower.
His eyes blazed blue fire in his pale face. Scared. He was scared for her.
He thrust his spear into the head of a zombie reaching for her. As it fell, he grabbed her by her good shoulder, ignoring her claws and fangs, and forcefully turned her around so he could examine her wound.
“She okay?” Denim yelled. He and his twin brother, Levi, fought back to back in a beautiful, gory dance Rune would never tire of watching.
But there was no time for watching, or for being pampered. “Dammit, Berserker, you can check me out after we kill these zombies.” She jerked out of his grip and turned, just in time to take off the head of a zombie whose teeth were an inch from Strad’s back. “See that? Pay attention before you get your own ass nibbled on.”
He narrowed his eyes but went back into the battle.
It wasn’t bad enough they had to worry about whether or not Ellis was going to turn into a vampire child of the mad master Llodra—now they would wonder if Rune was going to become a zombie.
Perfect.
Zombies fell, but it was not an easy battle. They were strong, they had no fear, and they were hungry. So hungry.
Rune could suddenly feel it, and that scared the fuck out of her.
She knew what hunger could do.
Gathering her fear and her fury to her, she used it to slaughter the monsters.
Shiv Crew lived for the fight.
Maybe they were all freaks, but that kept them alive.
And they had Rune.
She sliced through zombie after zombie with her built-in shivs. She was faster than any zombie—her speeds rivaled those of master vampires.
But the zombies kept coming. Some of them, necks hanging by a thread, got back up. There were nine Shiv Crew members and eight of them were fighting. That was a hell of a lot of shivs and fists and muscle.
But the zombies just kept coming.
Rune lost track of time, but even her arms were burning. The other members, all human but for Lex, would surely be tiring under the strain.
The monsters surrounded them, corralling the crew into a tight knot of flashing blades. Zombie voices assaulted Rune’s sensitive ears. A constant, low moaning in which she imagined she could hear actual words.
Hungry. Hungry.
Long, discolored teeth snapped as the monsters tried to bite—eat—the crew, and the sounds of groans, slicing blades, and those hideous chomping teeth filled the air.
“Fuck,” she screamed. “Where the fuck is Jack?”
If they’d had time to prepare for the battle, it would have been a little more evenly matched. But Rock County hadn’t warned them, and by the time Rune understood what was really going on, the crew had to move fast and plan faster.
They’d driven into Rock County in three different vehicles, Rune leading the way with Lex and Owen.
Strad had been right behind her with Levi and Z. Denim and Jack had ridden with Raze.
They’d entered Rock County and had been driving down a long, gravel road, surrounded by woods, when they’d spotted a couple of straggling zombies.
Stunned, the crew had destroyed those first zombies quickly, but in moments, more had arrived. Attracted by the scent of hot blood and warm flesh, no doubt.
Kill the zombies. Don’t get bitten.
That was pretty much the extent of the plan.
She lost sight of the other crew members. Panic began to beat at her brain like waves of an angry ocean. The berserker’s roar comforted her and she fought on. Shiv Crew never gave up.
Not ever.
But things had gotten intense in a hurry. They were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The zombies were bad motherfuckers, and they were there to battle.
A battle Shiv Crew just might lose.
Blood continued to color the air as the crew sliced through monster necks.
And they roared their glee.
They were Shiv Crew.
And that, right there—the fighting, the killing—that was what they fucking did.
Chapter Two
Just that morning she’d awakened in the berserker’s arms…
“Open the door, Rune. Let me in.”
She’d let him in. She’d let him in everywhere.
Even through a layer of grief thick enough to be visible, Strad’s raging energy was evident. And his fear.
Sometimes so much horror could overwhelm a person. She’d been pulled down into the black depths often enough to know there really wasn’t a hell of a lot you could do about it.
People had died, and the world was different.
He didn’t ask questions. He stepped inside the room, kicked the door shut, and pulled her into his arms.
His embrace was unforgiving, angry, hurting. There was nothing sweet about his kiss. He lifted her and strode to the bed, his mouth opening over hers.
Some small part of her wanted to make a token show of resistance, but she couldn’t figure out why so she ignored it and wound her arms around his neck.
She clung to him, realizing that if she had sex with the berserker, nothing would ever be the same between them. Always, there’d be…
Something.
She tore her lips from his, gasping beneath the weight of his passion. “Strad—”
He’d been heading to the point of no return even before she’d addicted him to her blood, and he was too far gone now to stop.
She didn’t want him to stop. That wasn’t the problem.
But as her lust and her passion for him spilled over, so did her need to feed. There had been worry about what he might do to her.
She was worried about what she might do to him.
He dropped her to the bed and fell on top of her. He held her face between his big hands, deepening his kiss. Moans came from deep inside him, floating into her mouth, into her brain.
“Strad,” she cried again, against his lips.
He dragged his mouth away, his eyes glittering as he stared down at her. “I want to fuck you, Rune. Just shut up while I fuck you.”
She shivered at his words, at his need. “If I hurt you—”
He laughed. “Honey.” His voice was tender, finally, as his heart caught up with his black, black despair. “You can’t.”
He was tireless, and his passion was endless. Hot and hard and ready, he fucked her with an almost terrifying, mindless hunger, his groans becoming cries that became moans.
Then whispering as he held her, his hands roaming her body with a desperation she knew was not only desire, but addiction.
Shhhh. Not yet. Don’t think about that yet.
She resisted running her fingers through the light sheen of sweat covering his skin. Just as she resisted licking off the little beaded line of blood sliding slowly down his neck. She closed her eyes, wishing she could forget everything that made her and the berserker a bad fucking idea.
He turned on his side to face her, bending his elbow and resting his head on his arm. “Are you hurt?”
She smiled. “I was wondering the same thing about you.”
His teeth gleamed in the semidarkness as he returned her smile. “It’s a good, tired kind of pain.”
Yeah, it was. Not a bad, secret pain. A different kind. Neither one of them was a normal person—they fought hard, p
layed hard, and fucked hard.
“Still,” she said, “you held back.”
He placed his hot palm on her stomach. “I know. And so did you.”
“You can’t hurt me, you know. Not really.”
“And I want to keep it that way.”
I want all of you, Berserker. Or none of you. “I have to think about this.”
“Don’t pull away from me.” His voice rumbled quietly into the darkness.
“I’m in bed with the berserker.” She was suddenly and slightly amazed.
She’d fed from him as she’d fucked him—fed her need and his addiction and both their bodies.
It was small wonder the sheets and pillows were no longer on the bed. She was surprised the bed still stood. That the floor remained intact.
For a little while, the shadows and darkness had hidden beneath the onslaught of the berserker's passion.
Still...
Something other than the vision of him in bed with Tina kept poking at her. Something more than the terrible knowledge of his addiction.
Maybe just the simple fact that she wasn’t whole enough to be in a…relationship. Maybe that was the sad truth of the matter.
She picked up a long strand of his black hair and twisted it between her fingers. “I have to think about this,” she repeated.
“Take your time. I'm not going anywhere.”
But he'd just lost his wife and his child. How could he be clear about anything?
He couldn't.
His biceps bunched as he pushed his hair out of his face. The double bed looked tiny with him in it, but any bed would have. The berserker was huge.
She sat up and swung her legs off the bed, grimacing at the soreness between her thighs.
He shot a hand out and wrapped his fingers around her arm. “Rune—”
She pulled away, not ungently, and stood. “Go home, Strad. We both need some time to move on from everything.” She clicked the light on, thinking it would be somehow easier to resist him without the shadows making everything so…soft and forgiving.
But trickles of remorse became rivers of guilt inside her and she dug her nails into her bare thighs. She’d addicted the berserker and she’d addicted Lex, and she had no idea how to fix either one of them. No idea.
She really was a monster.
He stared at her for a moment longer, then left the bed and began climbing into his clothes. At last, when he was dressed, he spoke. “Being calm and happy scares the fuck out of you.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “We're all fucked up. Doesn't matter. We're connected, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
