by Laken Cane
She realized she hadn’t asked Strad where he and the crew had gone. The world didn’t stop just because she had personal demons to fight, and likely they’d been called to fight the city’s monsters.
When she was inside Wormwood and safely out of Strad’s sight, she slowed to a walk and pushed her palm against her chest.
“Gunnar,” she called.
There was no answer. No skinny ghoul appeared suddenly from the shadows to bow and say, “Your Highness.”
If he lived, she was going to fetch him an entire case of Baby Ruth candy bars.
She couldn’t bear another death. She really couldn’t.
Z’s death left a gaping wound in her chest, much like the one she bore from Llodra’s staking. Only the one left by Z would not heal.
“Gunnar,” she screamed, trying to drown out thoughts of Z. “Gunnar!”
He appeared then, a pale, slight form, and shambled toward her.
She closed her eyes in a long, slow blink of relief. Not everything always went wrong. “Hi sexy.”
But the ghoul was not happy. He fell to his knees in front of her, his face hidden behind his long, black hair.
She knelt with him, crossing her arms over her chest as though the pressure might ease the pain. “Gunnar, you saved my life.”
“He would have torn me to pieces, in the end.” He wouldn’t look at her. “I fled to where he could not follow.”
“Fuck that. You saved my fucking life. You have nothing to apologize for. Now help me up. I have to drive to the hospital and also see what’s happening outside the world of Wormwood.”
He peeked at her, opened his mouth, and let out a small squeak. “I…”
“You,” she said. “You are my hero.”
He snorted, but his eyes were flinching and swimming in bloody tears. “You should go home and heal.”
“I will. After I visit Ellie, I’ll just go…decompress.”
“And I will just go…decompose.”
Then, wearing tiny smiles, they leaned on each other as Rune made her way back out into the world.
A chapter had ended with a sigh.
But something fluttered inside her, something unsettled and vague. Outside Wormwood was trouble. She felt it when she left the gates.
Something was happening, and it wasn’t anything good.
Part Three
Transition
Chapter Thirty-Two
On her way to the hospital she called Strad. “How is he?”
“He’ll be fine.” His rough voice rumbled in her ear. “I hate fucking leaving you like that.”
“I’m a monster, Strad,” she replied. “They can’t keep me down.”
“I don’t want my woman hurt. No matter how tough she is.”
She shivered suddenly and her body tightened. “I’ll be there in a few.” She clicked off. Fucking caveman.
The emergency department parking lot was packed with cars, and it took her so long to find a parking place that she very nearly abandoned her car in the center of the lot. But finally, she found one.
The first fingers of daylight pointed across the sky. She needed coffee. Hot, black, and strong. But later. After she checked on Ellis.
She jogged into the waiting area. Two women sat behind the long partition at the back of the room, and a nurse spoke quietly into a phone. They all looked up at her arrival.
“Oh my goodness,” one of the women said, as they gaped at her.
Rune frowned. She and her crew were used to looking banged up and bloody. They sometimes forgot regular people might be shocked. “I’m fine. I need to see a man who was brought in a little while ago. Ellis—”
“Rune?”
She glanced up, right into the irate eyes of Ellis’s mother. “Dr. Abbot.” Her stomach muscles tightened and she fought not to avoid the doctor’s stare. It was no shock that Ellie’s mom wasn’t thrilled about the relationship he had with Rune, especially since she kept getting him hurt.
And the stern, unsmiling woman had always had a way of making Rune feel about six years old.
“Come with me,” the doctor said. “I need to speak with you before you see him.”
Lovely. “How’s he doing?”
“He has a concussion. He’ll be okay. This time.”
“Look, I know this is my fault. I’ll be more careful with him from now on. I should have told the crew to make him go home.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I never thought he’d wait for me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know the specifics of what happened to Ellis, only that it involved you, as it usually does when he is hurt.” She held up a hand when Rune started to speak, never once slowing her rapid stride down the hallway. “And I don’t want to know. His father and I believe you understand the danger you’re putting our son in by associating with him.” Finally she stopped walking, leaned against the wall, and stared at Rune. “I’d like you to stop.”
Rune frowned. “I said I’d be more careful.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Rune put her hands on her hips, feeling the first stirrings of anger. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I want you to stay away from him.”
Rune smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Ellis isn’t a kid, Dr. Abbot. I’ll take more care to keep him out of trouble. I’m not cutting him out of my life.”
“Not even to save his?”
“You’re exaggerating.” But she wasn’t.
“I know you and my son have a special bond, Rune. I know he’s done things for you that…” She shook her head. “That I really don’t want to know about. But quite simply, you’re going to get him killed.”
Rune tried swallowing past the dryness in her throat. She half succeeded. “I’ll watch over him.”
“Just think about it. Ellis doesn’t belong in your world.” She raked Rune from head to toe with a sharp glance. “Look at you. You’re…how are you even alive? Look at you.” Then, almost imperceptibly, she softened. “Let me take care of that wound.” She nodded at Rune’s chest.
Rune stared down at the gaping hole in her shirt. Her top was covered with blood. She put a hand to her chest, trying to cover the damage. It didn’t work. “I’ll be okay.”
“You probably will,” the doctor agreed. “But Ellis will not. Don’t be selfish about this. You can’t play with his life.” Then she straightened and pointed her chin at a room down the hall. “He’s being admitted, so we’ll move him in a little while. Don’t stay too long.” Then, with another look at Rune’s bloodied and battered body, she walked away.
Rune stared after her, too tired to even sigh. When she turned back toward Ellis’s room, Strad was standing in the doorway watching her.
“Berserker,” she murmured, and started toward him.
He met her halfway. “He’s fine, Rune.”
“Yeah. Concussion. His mother told me.”
“How’d that go?” He took her arm.
She pulled away. She wasn’t really angry at him, but he was there in the path of it. “I guess it’s about time she started showing some concern.”
Ellis’s relationship with his parents was usually strained. Ellis was the total opposite of his parents. He was affectionate and dramatic and full of love. They were chilly and distant. They tried to keep the peace, to keep Ellie calm, but there had been no real concern.
Strad walked beside her, his expression not changing at her grumpiness. “I’m going to get you a cup of coffee and make a few phone calls while you’re with him.”
“Thanks. I could use some coffee.”
But he paused, looking at her chest. He reached out to pull the neck of her shirt down and bent forward to examine the wound. “It’s healing, but slowly.”
“It hurts like a motherfucker.”
“You were staked, Rune.” He met her gaze. “And you’re walking around like you were only punched in the face.”
She was aware of the enormity of the situation. Who walke
d away from a staking? “I know.”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” And before she realized what he was going to do, he leaned forward and gave her a hard kiss. Then he strode out of the room and left her staring after him.
“That is one sexy boy,” Ellis said.
She jumped at his voice. “I thought you were asleep, baby. How are you feeling?”
“I want to go home, but mother insisted I stay.”
“You need to let them keep an eye on you.” She smoothed back his hair. “I’m sorry, Ellie.” Would she ever be able to tell him he was one bite away from becoming a monster?
He studied her for a long moment. “Rune, have I ever neglected to tell you when you need to apologize?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “No. Not so much.”
He didn’t smile. “And I wouldn’t now. If you had something to own up to, I’d be the first one to let you know.”
“Just rest and get better.”
“Rune.” He grasped her hand. “You look like death.”
She touched her face with her free hand, then dropped it almost self-consciously to her chest. “I’m aware.”
“I don’t think you are. Your face is sunken and your eyes are…” He pressed his lips together as his eyes moistened. “I know you’re insanely powerful. I know you can take damage others can’t. But you need a break. Maybe not even from the physical stuff. Maybe just from the mental stuff.” He hesitated before charging on. “Z is dead.”
And I killed him.
She couldn’t help but shudder, but said nothing as she leaned over to kiss his forehead. Later, when those thoughts took over, she was going to be in trouble. “I just need some fucking coffee.”
He blinked and looked away.
“Uh-oh,” she said. “I knew something was up. I haven’t had a chance to question anyone. What’s going on, Ellie?”
“I heard Strad talking on his phone.”
She pushed her hand into her stomach. “Yeah?”
“Two things. One, the bloodbath at RISC. The news is full of it. And all of River County is turning on the Others.”
She sighed. “I’m not surprised. But they’ll calm down in a few days.”
He started to shake his head, then grimaced and cut the movement short. He tightened his fingers on hers. “COS is here, and they’re making it worse. The humans are scared, and they have opened their arms to the slayers.”
A cold finger of unease slid over her spine. “What?”
“Llodra has ruined life for the Others. At least in this city.”
“He doesn’t care,” she snarled, and then forced herself to calm down. Ellis didn’t need her rage. “I’ll call Bill Rice. We’ll keep an eye on the slayers and things will settle down with the fucking humans.”
Strad slipped noiselessly back into the room and handed her a cup of coffee.
“What else?” She took a gulp of the coffee, wishing she could just close her eyes, forget the world, and enjoy her caffeine.
“Rune,” Ellis said, “they will come after you. The humans. COS.”
“Let them come.” Fuckers. Let them come.
A nurse swept into the room, her bright smile faltering when she caught sight of Rune. “We’re going to move him now.”
“I’ll be safe. You have to…” He glanced at the nurse. He beckoned Rune closer, and when she leaned over he whispered in her ear. “Hide.”
And because she wouldn’t have him worrying, she agreed. “I will, sugar. You just get better. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She frowned. “Or today. What time is it?”
“It’s six in the morning,” Strad said. “Let’s go, Rune.”
How could so many things happen in so little time? She followed Strad from the room, her hand protectively over her still healing wound. “Where’s the crew?”
“Out trying to protect Others.”
“Law enforcement?”
“Most of them are doing what they can,” he said, his voice grim. “But some of them have always been against the Others. Now they feel they have an excuse to abuse them.”
“Assholes.”
“Yeah.” He took her arm when she headed for her car. “Ride with me, Rune.”
“I don’t want to leave my car.”
He ran his hand over his face. “I’d feel better. We can get your car later.”
“No.”
“We need to stay together right now. All of us.”
“They’re not after you, Berserker. You’ll be okay. And I will fight anyone who tries to take me.”
He gave her a tiny, tired smile. “Including me.”
“I’m so cold,” she said. “I just want to go to the inn and crawl under a mountain of blankets. Three hours. That’s all I need, then I’ll come help you guys.”
“I can take care of you.”
“I can take care of myself.” She was carrying so much rage and agony because of Z, but she was powerless to stop it. There were only so many things she could shove away. What had happened with Z was always going to be there. That was the grim truth.
“Am I your favorite too, Rune?”
She shook it off.
Strad sighed at her fierceness. “Then I’ll let you go.”
But at her car he stopped her again. “You should feed.”
She shuddered at the image of Llodra forcing his blood into her mouth. “I don’t have to. Not yet. I just need sleep. Sleep heals me.”
He nodded, then waited until she’d gotten behind the wheel before he walked away. Driving through town, she glanced back to see him riding her ass. He sat in the parking lot of the inn, motor idling, as she stumbled into her room and closed the door firmly behind her.
She managed a ten minute shower, bandaged the slowly healing wound on her chest—she couldn’t reach her back—then slept exactly three hours and seven minutes.
That was the last peace she would have for a very, very long time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
When she left her room at the inn, the humans who had gathered quietly in the parking lot erupted.
“Monster! Leader of the monster squad,” someone yelled.
A few eggs splatted as they hit her, but most of the delicate torpedoes fell to the pavement around her. The eggs were harmless. The humiliation was not. The humans were pushing her when she should not be pushed, but she grabbed her anger with a desperate fist and refused to let it loose.
If she lost control, the humans were dead.
And she wanted to think she wasn’t there yet. She wasn’t that much of a monster.
Not yet.
For a second she was frozen, but when an egg hit her injured chest with particular viciousness, she cried out in pain and rage and started toward the small crowd.
Some of them screamed and backed away. A few held their phones high as they concentrated on recording her, and still others continued to launch eggs with self-righteous anger.
She couldn’t hurt the ignorant sons of bitches, but she could scare the fuck out of them. She shot her silver claws out and dropped her fangs.
One of the people recording her was a boy who couldn’t have been much older than fifteen. She sped toward him and knocked his phone from his hand before he was aware she’d moved.
More screams as the humans witnessed her crazy fast speed, but as though aware she wouldn’t really hurt them, they mostly held their ground.
But then she spotted a big dude in a black leather vest hurl a short silver blade.
That, she’d hurt them over.
From her peripheral vision, she caught a glimpse of someone running toward her.
“Rune,” Lex called.
And she snatched the blade out of the air.
Lex was covered with weapons, her usually emotionless face held in tight lines of rage. “Fuck you,” she screamed to the small mob. “Get the fuck out of here.”
She was terrified.
She tried to disguise it, to hide it beneath her anger—but Rune felt it. She tasted it, smel
led it.
Lex was terrified.
COS.
Rune groaned. COS was in the city to help the humans with the monsters. If she hadn’t been so exhausted she’d have realized what that meant to Lex and the twins.
Especially Lex. She’d been conditioned from the day she was born to fear COS, to fear her mother. The Other was a badass, but the slayers turned her into a pile of trembling sludge. They shut her brain right the fuck down.
“Shit, Lex,” she murmured.
Levi and Denim scattered the humans as they went for the knife-thrower. He saw them coming, started to run, then changed his mind.
He pulled a gun.
“Fuck,” Rune screamed. She retracted her claws and was at his back in seconds, but still, he’d managed to fire the weapon. And though he’d fired at the twins, he hit one of his fellow protesters.
She flew into him and knocked him to the ground, but the damage had been done.
Rune let Levi and Denim handle him as she knelt beside the shot human. The crowd grew quiet and watched with wide eyes and pale faces. Two women murmured into phones, calling, Rune assumed, 911.
But it was too late for the human, a fifty-something man with a furry hat and a sticker pasted to his overcoat: Death to the monsters!
Indeed.
She climbed to her feet and walked toward the twins, who were keeping the shooter down.
Lex joined her, her body vibrating. “We took a room close to yours so we’d be here when you woke up. Didn’t turn out the way we’d hoped.”
“It rarely does.” Rune sighed. “The man he shot is dead. I don’t want to be here when the cops show up. Pile into my car and let’s get the fuck out of here.” The berserker was right. They needed to stick together.
The shooter lay on his belly. One of the twins had restrained his hands behind his back with nylon cuffs. “Just leave him?” Levi asked.
Rune nodded. “He’s not going anywhere.” She pointed at the little knot of humans, now huddled together in shock and silence. “They won’t let him.” The humans might have hated her and the Others, but they hadn’t come prepared to watch one of their own die.
They still stared at Rune with hatred and fear, but they stared at the shooter the same way—minus the fear.
