Strange Trouble

by Laken Cane

  Even as she watched, a tall, dark-haired woman separated from the crowd and strode toward the shooter, her face shuttered and dark.

  When she began kicking him in the head, Rune looked at her crew. “Let’s go.” The sound of sirens filled the air. They’d get there in time to save the shooter from a concussion. Maybe.

  She handed her keys to Levi. His fingers brushed hers as he took the keys, and then he reached out to grab her wrist with his free hand.

  They stared at each other for a long, quiet moment.

  “We okay?” she asked.

  “Yes.” He smiled, and there were no lingering grudges or regrets in his eyes. “We are good.”

  She nodded. “Then let’s get out of here.”

  “Raze, Jack, and Owen went to help some Others a couple hours ago,” Lex told her, once they were headed down the highway. “The shifters were shot up with silver and buried alive by a mob of fucking humans.”

  “Scared humans,” Denim said. He was sitting in the front with Levi, and glanced back at Lex as he spoke.

  “Doesn’t excuse them,” she snapped.

  “No, it doesn’t. Lex—”

  “Not right now,” she said.

  The blind Other was still hurt over the twins abandoning her, but Rune doubted she’d stay angry for much longer. With the appearance of COS, she and the twins would soon close ranks.

  “Where’s Strad?” Rune asked.

  Before any of them could answer, her cell buzzed. It was the berserker.

  “Rune. I’m at Toad’s and Butter’s in the Moor. I need you here.”

  “I’m with the twins and Lex. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Need me to call the others?”

  “I’ll do it.” He clicked off.

  “What’s up?” Levi asked.

  “Something at Toad’s and Butter’s. He didn’t specify.”

  “I can feed you,” Lex offered.

  “I’m okay for now.”

  But as they hurtled down the highway toward the Moor, she knew she was lying.

  She’d never really been okay, and she wasn’t going to start now.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The few customers and employees at Toad’s and Butter’s were busy taking pictures of a dead, bloody bear sprawled out on the dirty wood floor.

  There would soon be pictures and videos all over YouTube and Facebook of the crew examining the half-shifted bear.

  Jack and Raze were already there, standing with Strad over the body. Owen walked in just seconds after Rune.

  Rune knelt to examine the bear. “Jack, you and Raze move these people back. Owen, help me look over the body. Lex, if you get a reading let me know. Denim and Levi, one of you question the customers and the other talk to the wait staff.”

  “Rune,” Lex said, “I’m getting a strange feeling.”

  “What?” Rune asked.

  The Other vibrated gently, her sightless eyes dancing. “Just strange.”

  Rune frowned and studied the shifter. The bear was naked and grotesque in death, more so because he wasn’t completely shifted than because of the deep wounds on his body.

  Patches of fur competed for space with the bloody, jagged wounds. His mouth was open, showing long, sharp teeth crowding a mostly human face. His torso was bear, his arms and legs human. He looked like a mutant spider.

  She leaned over him. “Guys. These wounds aren’t from a blade.”

  Strad knelt down, ignoring Owen but nodding a hello to the others. He studied the wounds. “You’re right.” He leaned closer, his eyes narrowed. “These are from teeth.”

  “Holy fuck,” someone yelled. “They just said those are teeth marks. Someone tried to eat the fucking bear!”

  “I heard bear meat is tasty,” someone else said, causing those near him to break out into laughter.

  As though a man had not just been killed.

  Rune growled. “Jack.”

  “On it.” He pushed the humans back farther, ignoring their complaints. “Go sit the fuck down or I’m going to clear this room.”

  No one argued with him and at last, the customers drifted back to their tables and to the long bar, leaving the crew to their investigation.

  “What the hell are people doing at a bar this early in the morning?” Rune muttered. But this place was in the Moor—her new home. Nothing was normal in the Moor.

  Lex put her hand on Rune’s shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear. She said only one word, and that one word filled Rune with dread.

  “Zombies.”

  Strad and Owen looked at her quizzically.

  “What is it?” Owen asked, kneeling on her other side.

  She swallowed. “Rock County shit has found us.”

  It only took them a second.

  “Fuck,” Strad said.

  A vivid image of Z hit her mind’s eye like a bomb. She grabbed her head and groaned.

  “Rune,” Strad said. “What?”

  “Sadness,” Lex murmured. “Part zillion.”

  Rune lowered her hands and shook her head, hard, forcing out thoughts of Z. “I’m okay.” She took a deep breath, got her emotions under control, then motioned Strad closer. “I doubt the bear came far with injuries like these.”

  He nodded. “Before I called you, I called for the RISC bus to take him to the lab. We’ll need to get him away from these people.”

  “Do we know if we can be infected by a body?”

  “There have been some cases.”

  She wiped her hands on her jeans and stood. “Let’s not take any chances. Just keep the people away from him until RISC arrives.”

  Owen stood as well, his arm brushing Rune’s shoulder. Strad stared at him with narrowed eyes.

  “Owen,” Rune said. “Call Bill Rice.”

  He nodded and pulled his cell phone from his pocket, walking a few steps away to make the call.

  Denim and Levi joined them. “I got nothing,” Denim said. “The bear apparently walked in, fell to the floor, and died.” He shrugged. “There was nothing else.”

  Levi nodded. “Same here. He never said anything at all, just…died.”

  Rune motioned them to her. “Zombies,” she said, quietly.

  “That is not good,” Jack said, trying to whisper. His voice rumbled with a low, gritty darkness that echoed throughout the room. “Fucking zombies?”

  “Jack,” Rune said. She shook her head, frowning.

  “Sorry.”

  But he was right. It was not good.

  Not good at all.

  She glanced toward the door and rested her fingers on her sheathed silver blades, willing RISC to appear and cart off the bear.

  “Oh no.” Lex pointed. “Look.”

  The bear had begun to twitch. And change. His eyes opened.

  Empty eyes.

  The crew stared, disbelief on their faces.

  “How is this happening?” Rune asked. “Damascus is gone. The Other zombies went with her. I saw them lying in piles upon the ground. How is this possible?”

  “Maybe she’s back,” Lex said.

  “I don’t think so,” Rune said. She didn’t feel the witch. But how the hell else were the Others being infected?

  “What should we do?” Levi asked.

  Rune slid two silver shivs from their sheaths. “Gather around me, guys.”

  They shielded her body immediately.

  She knelt. Without hesitation, she plunged her blades into the bear’s eyes and with little effort, into the brain.

  “There,” she said, and left the knives where they were. She didn’t want the diseased pieces of metal back. She dusted her hands as she arose. It amused her that in the heat of battle, she got zombie bits all over her—yet there she was, wiping her hands like a fussy old lady.

  “Uh,” said Denim. “Rune?”

  “Yeah?” She looked at her palms. “What?”

  “Oops,” Lex murmured. “Zombie movement at floor o’clock.”

  “The fuck?” Rune whipped around
to stare at the zombie, and sure enough, the bastard was still twitching. It didn’t seem to notice that it had two blades protruding from its eye sockets.

  “It doesn’t want to stay dead,” Lex said.

  “Customer alert.” Levi pointed. “They’re heading this way.”

  “Shit,” Rune said. “One of you head them off.” She pulled another blade, a long one. “I’ll—”

  “Never mind,” Raze said, and yanked a mini scythe from a holster at his hip. “I’ll get it.” Before anyone could move, he lifted the curved blade and cut through the bear zombie’s thick neck. The head and the body parted company without much trouble. “Twitch now, motherfucker.”

  There was surprisingly little mess. Rune glared at the RISC workers as they hurried into the bar with a stretcher. “Take him to RISC. And this time, hurry the fuck up.”

  The zombie was deprived of its head and had two silver blades in its brain, but the bastard hadn’t wanted to stay down. “Wait,” Rune said, as the transporters approached.

  She took off her jacket and spread it out on the floor, then rolled the bear’s head into it. Strad helped her tie it into a neat bundle for the puzzled RISC workers. “Take it to the lab,” she said. “And don’t touch it with your bare skin.”

  “What’s it contaminated with?” one of them asked.

  She hesitated. “Something you don’t want touching you.” Or biting you.

  He shrugged, and then they loaded the bear onto the stretcher. And necessary or not, they covered the body with a silver-lined sheet.

  Rune put a hand to her stomach, massaging away the dread that had gathered there to keep the anxiety company.

  Fucking zombies were in River County, and if Shiv Crew didn’t contain the threat quickly and quietly, the military would come to make life even more of a hell than it usually was.

  But worse than that, the new zombies were back. And if she didn’t figure out how to make them disappear for good, the world wasn’t going to have a chance.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “We have to find them,” she told the crew as they left the bar.

  “They could be anywhere,” Jack replied, “so that might be a little difficult.”

  She glanced at Owen. “How is Elizabeth?”

  “Doing better. She’s strong.”

  Her phone buzzed. “Ellie?”

  “Are you okay, Rune?”

  “I’m fine. You?”

  “I’m staying for a few more hours then I’m getting out of here.” He hesitated, and when he continued, it was with a deep tone of pride. “Bill Rice has asked me to cover for Elizabeth until she’s better.”

  “No, Ellie. I don’t think—”

  “It’s what I’m doing.” His voice was soft, but firm. “I’m going to do my part.”

  “Your mother will not be happy.”

  “My mother has never been happy, and nothing I do or don’t do will change that. I’m coming to help. You just be careful.” Again, he hesitated. “I wouldn’t want to live in a world without you, Rune.”

  She blinked away quick tears. “Okay,” she managed, and put her cell back into her pocket.

  “What did he say?” Levi asked. “Is he all right?”

  “He’s breaking out of the hospital in a few hours. Rice has asked him to take over for Elizabeth until she’s back.”

  Levi sighed but didn’t argue.

  They stood in the dirty snow around Rune’s car. Every single one of them looked slightly shell-shocked and tired in the cold light of the morning.

  “Before we go zombie hunting,” she said, “let’s find a restaurant. Have a hot breakfast and some—”

  “Coffee.” They all said the word at the exact same time, smiling slightly.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “Fucking coffee.”

  Ten minutes later she pulled into the parking lot of a small diner, the others right behind her. The scents of hot coffee and cooking meat made her stomach groan as she started toward a table against the far wall.

  The place was crowded with other patrons grabbing a hot meal, and Rune didn’t at first pay attention to the sudden silence.

  But as she pulled out a chair and started to sit down, it hit her, that silence.

  She and the crew stared at the roomful of humans, and the humans stared back with sullen faces and angry eyes.

  “Can’t we even eat our breakfast without being exposed to the fucking monsters?”

  Rune looked at the speaker, a small man in a suit. He sat at a table with two other suited guys, and as with pretty much the entire room, not one of them had friendly faces. “If you see a monster here, sir, be sure to let us know. We’ll protect you from them as we always do.”

  “Who will protect us from your fucking ugly face?” This was from a man in the back. He wore a motorcycle jacket and a ponytail.

  “You’d think they’d be a little too scared to fuck with us,” Rune said. “Something’s up.”

  After all, she was known to be a stone-cold killer, and the men at her back were large enough to give any normal person pause.

  But then, Lex stepped up beside her, her body vibrating. Fear came off her in waves, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. “COS,” she whispered, and put a hand to her chest.

  Rune nodded. “Yeah.” And then she spotted them.

  The slayers, six of them, sat at a corner table in the back, right next to motorcycle dude. When they noticed her watching, they smiled.

  “Bastards,” she said.

  Raze started toward them and as one, they got to their feet.

  Each slayer held a handgun.

  “Raze,” Rune said. “Not worth it. We’ll find another place.”

  “Good idea,” one of the COS members said. He was a tall man in a gray suit and a tie, unremarkable and bland. Except for his eyes.

  They shone with hatred so dark she almost took a step back. Almost.

  “Walk away,” she told her crew. “I’ll be right behind you.” There were too many humans in the room. If COS started shooting, half of them would probably end up dead. She didn’t want to risk the crew, either.

  “The men can stay,” Gray Suit said, “but you need to go somewhere and eat with the other dogs. This place doesn’t allow animals.” He pointed to the door. “There’s a sign outside that says so.” His lips twitched.

  “You’re hilarious,” she said. “But you need to shut the fuck up before I change my mind and let my crew tear you to pieces.”

  His cold stare raked Lex, who stood her ground beside Rune, despite the fact that her body was racked with shivers stronger than the vibrations.

  Then Lex moaned, swaying gently.

  The twins and Raze gathered around her, gently easing her back. Strad and Jack slid up to stand beside Rune. Owen stood at her back.

  “Those guns,” Rune told the COS members, “won’t stop me. While shooting me is still a thought in your minds I’ll have ripped them from your hands and shoved them down your throats.” She tried to calm herself—the rage was there, and it was overwhelming. She wanted to hurt them. She wanted to fucking hurt them. She shook with the powerfulness of her emotions, of reaction. She wanted to kill. She wanted to taste blood. She wanted someone to suffer.

  She heard a phone ringing, and realized only when she heard Jack muttering tersely into it that it was his phone.

  Owen squeezed her shoulder and she felt his breath in her hair. “Anyone not wanting to die should leave the room.” His voice was calm, but full of steel. “Now.”

  Chairs scraped the floor and the customers tripped over each other running for the exit.

  And for a second, Rune saw doubt in the slayers’ eyes.

  “What about you,” she murmured. “Do you want to die?”

  “No,” Gray Suit answered. “But we want the Other you’re protecting. We want Karin Love’s daughter. Give her to us and no one from the church will ever set foot in your city again.”

  Lex began screaming, tormented and terrified. Rune reali
zed all over again that what COS had put her through, what her mother had put her through, was never going to leave the girl.

  “Know how I find the silence?”

  “Get her the fuck out of here,” she said.

  Because she would always protect Lex, and because she was so full of rage and torment and the need to kill, she started toward the men.

  She was going to destroy them.

  And those killings would be fucking justified.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  How Jack stopped her, she’d never know. Just suddenly he was there, his nose against hers, his voice bringing her back from a killing edge.

  “Rune. Not yet.”

  “One good reason,” she said, realizing she’d shot out her silver claws and that her fangs were cutting into her lip. It’d been an automatic response to the bloodlust, and she hadn’t even been aware.

  God, she hated COS.

  “I’ll give you two,” Jack replied. “You’ll go to jail, Rune. And…” he hesitated and lowered his voice. “Rice has located the items we were wondering about earlier.”

  At last, she focused on his face, his words. “Items? You mean…?”

  “Yes. At the hospital.”

  Shit. The hospital—where Fie was.

  She retracted her claws and fangs and turned with her crew to walk away, but turned back for one last warning. “If I see any of you so much as look at Lex, I will rip your throats out. And I’ll enjoy the fuck out of it.” She waited, but no one replied. They stood still and uncertain with their guns pointed and their faces pale.

  “Just give me an excuse,” she said, then strode with her men from the diner.

  The twins had put Lex in the backseat of Rune’s SUV and sat on either side of her, their arms around her.

  They looked at Rune with identical hopeless gazes when she opened the door and climbed under the wheel.

  “You didn’t kill them?” Denim asked, slightly accusing.

  “No. How is Lex?”

  He met her stare in the mirror. “She’ll be okay.”

  “Lex?”

  “I’m okay, Rune.” But her voice was flat, devoid of hope. As though she knew that someday she’d be once again in the cruel grasp of COS and there wasn’t one fucking thing she could do about it.