Strange Trouble

by Laken Cane

  Strad stepped toward Raze. “That’s enough.”

  “This is not Rune,” Raze roared, and shoved the berserker.

  Oh fuck. Fuck me.

  They’d kill each other.

  The berserker and Raze, right then, went a little fucking crazy. Not using weapons, but fists, and surrounded in a swirling, almost visible aura of rage, they began to fight.

  “Fuck you,” she screamed, and finally, finally, she got mad.

  And she went after her monster.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  The world was bleak and terrible, chaotic and scary, but nothing compared with the black world inside her mind.

  That was where she had to go.

  She found her monster, found him lying upon a bloody floor, bound and gagged, with the ghost of Jeremy slicing into him with savage glee.

  Jeremy sneered when he saw her, his eyes gleaming with madness. “You think you can take him from me?” He straightened, his hands holding blades, his arms scarlet to the shoulders.

  Her monster struggled against his bonds, and when he looked at her, his eyes were red and tormented. “Why did you leave me here so long?” he seemed to say.

  “This is who you are,” Jeremy screamed. “This is what you want!” And just as abruptly, his smile became crafty and his voice softened. “Come here, baby. Let me make it all better.”

  Then Jeremy became Llodra. “Daddy loves you,” the vampire said. “Daddy loves his little girl.”

  She flinched away from him, and realized right then she was more hurt by Llodra than she’d ever been by Jeremy.

  “You’re nothing to me,” she said, and strode toward her monster.

  Her adoptive mother appeared, her smile sad, her eyes sadder. “You should hide, honey. The monster will get you.”

  “I’m the monster,” Rune replied, and reached down to grab her monster by the throat. “Don’t you understand? It’s always been me. I’m the monster.”

  Her monster smiled.

  “Ready?” he asked. “Are you really ready for me?”

  “Fuck yeah,” she said. “Don’t leave me again, you bastard.”

  “What will you do,” he whispered. “Hurt me?”

  It didn’t matter. She was fucked. She might have been mad, might have carried her father’s genes like pieces of broken glass that stabbed into her heart, over and over and fucking over, but she needed her monster, and she meant to have him. No matter what.

  “I thought I’d accepted you,” she murmured. And maybe she had. Maybe hiding him had simply been a subconscious, last ditch effort to be normal. To be human.

  Then it was a mere second later and she was back inside the COS kitchen, the sounds of flesh upon flesh beating at her brain as her men tried to kill each other.

  She shook off Owen’s hand when he cautioned her to be careful. She wasn’t worried. She waded into the fight.

  Strad hit Raze in the face, sending him reeling into her—if he’d have hit the wall as hard as he hit her, there would have been a Raze-shaped hole in the side of the house.

  The force of it caused her to move back a step as she caught him against her. That was all. She caught him, shoved him away, gently, and stepped between the two men.

  “Enough.” Her voice was low, guttural, and full of command. She figured her eyes would be glowing with the soft red of her monster. She’d seen his eyes once, on the torturous recording Jeremy had shown her.

  Her fangs cut into her lips, and with a nearly orgasmic release, she sent out her claws.

  Then she grinned at them.

  “You’re back,” Raze said, wiping his bloody nose. His eyes sparkled, and that was as close to returning her smile as he was going to get. “About time.”

  “It’s only been a few hours.”

  “Seemed like an eternity,” Strad said. He leaned against the wall, then straightened and walked to Raze. He clapped him on the shoulder and the two of them clutched each other in a brief, manly hug.

  “Men are crazy,” Rune said, then added, “You two did that on purpose.”

  Strad shrugged, but there was a gleam of pride in his eyes.

  Jack stepped over the dead slayer and walked toward them. “Rune. Go.”

  She was gone before he’d finished speaking.

  Running toward Rock County, to Lex and the twins, unable to breathe but not really needing to as the wind snatched the air from her lungs and propelled her ever onward.

  Fast, faster.

  Maybe her monster had needed the fucking rest, because he was faster than ever.

  She didn’t even try to remind herself that she was her monster. She thought of him as him, as separate, and that was okay.

  She did what she needed to do to make it right.

  And in time, who knew?

  Lex’s scent was there in the air—the closer she got to the city the stronger the scent. She and the Other had a bond, through blood or more she didn’t know and didn’t care. It was there, and it was strong.

  “I’m coming, baby,” she whispered, and knew that somehow, Lex heard her. Lex was not dead. “I’m coming.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  She didn’t need directions to the fight. She found it by following the link stretching between her and the blind Other.

  But if she hadn’t had that link, she could simply have followed the voices.

  She took everything in with a glance. Humans crowded into the Camp, which was still surrounded by a silver-laced fence, razor wire curling on the top.

  Rune realized immediately this fight was no secret to law enforcement. There were too many people attending.

  Games this size would have been impossible to keep hidden for long.

  Bastards.

  The fence appeared to have been repaired. She spotted no damaged parts that might allow Others to slip inside and try to help the ones forced to fight, if they’d been so inclined.

  She hoped she’d made it in time to save Lex. It was too late for the others who had been fought that day, but Lex…

  Let her be okay.

  The crowd screamed and cheered, frenzied and crazed by pain not their own, the horrible, horrible pain. The air was thick and hazy with spilled blood.

  And despair.

  Maybe they couldn’t feel it, but it was there. Despair and desolation.

  And something else.

  It was as though Damascus lingered—as though her essence still colored the area and maybe, maybe, that was why the humans were so…eager. Because of the witch’s wicked influence.

  She needed to believe that.

  She pushed past the throngs of people, looking for what held their attention.

  And then, she saw it.

  The huge cage she’d spotted after she fought the witch was once again occupied—by Lex.

  The little Other stood silent and somehow resigned, her head cocked and her hands open at her sides—trying, perhaps, to absorb through her palms information she could no longer hear.

  Her hair had been torn from its braids and hung in messy disarray around her shoulders.

  And even though her tormentors had punctured and plugged her ears with God only knew what, perhaps she could still absorb information.

  For her face lit with terror and she stumbled back suddenly, seeming to realize what new nightmare COS had pitted her against.

  Likely she smelled them.

  Zombies.

  They advanced on Lex, moaning as they lurched toward her.

  These were zombies created by Fie. Zombies she’d called from the grave.

  Not magical, not different, not fast. Just your regular, garden variety zombies, and Lex had been shoved into a cage with them.

  Apparently, COS could do anything—including corralling a bunch of zombies for Otherfights.

  Guards, five that she could see, had been evenly spaced along the front of the crowd. They were armed and stood with their arms crossed, wearing smug looks of superiority.

  Lex backed away, her voice blend
ing with the moans of the zombies and the shouts of the crowd. When her back hit the wall she slid down and wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her face against them.

  She had given up. Alone in the dark, with only the scent of the zombies.

  COS was her second greatest fear. Her mother was her first.

  Zombies came in third.

  And now, she was being terrorized by them all.

  Rune felt Lex’s despair. For a second, she was the one huddling blind on the floor, and it snatched the air from her lungs.

  Feel me, Lex. I'm coming.

  Lex lifted her face from her knees. “Rune,” she screamed.

  Rune shot her claws out with a painful force. The silver claws brightened and undulated before her, slashing any human stupid enough or slow enough to stay in her path. She charged the cage.

  Only one of the guards pulled a gun. The other four, perhaps figuring—and rightly so—that they weren't getting paid enough to take on an enraged monster, ran for cover.

  The one remaining guard dropped his gun and held up his hands, and that saved his life. She kicked him into the crowd of overly-excited onlookers and didn't give him another thought.

  Thin, silver netting wrapped the cage and it parted like butter beneath her claws. And then, she was inside the gory arena.

  Suddenly the only sounds were the zombies’ low, incessant moaning and their shuffling feet.

  The crowd had been shocked into silence as they surely wondered if this was part of the game or a new development that was about to get them killed.

  "I'm here," Rune said. And maybe Lex couldn't hear her, but she quieted as though she could. And Rune went after the zombies.

  And because she needed to know, had to know, for one tiny second she concentrated on making them turn away from Lex and toward her. She had to know if she could still control the zombies.

  As one, they turned toward her.

  Fuck me.

  She could have controlled them, could have ordered them to hold still for her blade, could have slaughtered them as they stood in a line and waited for it.

  But she didn't. If she was going to kill something, she was going to let it have half a chance at defending itself.

  So she didn’t even try.

  There were close to twenty of the monsters, and Rune flung herself into the middle of them with an almost surprising savageness.

  She'd destroyed nearly half of them before she realized the crowd was once again cheering, their voices loud with the hysterical thrill of fear.

  Lex didn't move, not even when one of the zombie heads landed with a splat beside her.

  Rune yanked the zombies into her dark, eager embrace, and when the cage was littered with rotting, stinking body parts, she went to Lex.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Rune knelt beside the girl, eyes darting as she watched for the threat of slayers. She touched Lex's shoulder. "Lex?"

  Lex screamed and jerked away, her hands in front of her. Deaf, blind, and locked inside a world of quiet terror, the Other was expecting only more pain.

  Then her head lolled on her neck and she mumbled something. There, then gone, then back again.

  "God, baby." Rune pulled Lex against her chest, wrapping her securely in her arms. "It's me. Shhh."

  Lex was sluggish and slow, as drugged as the fake twins had been. But on an Other the drugs would have a different effect. They were just enough to make her vulnerable and weak.

  Just enough to be sure she was down, but not out. COS had wanted her to know exactly what was happening to her. Or at least to have snatches of reality mixed in with the chaotic blackness inside her mind.

  They’d wanted her to fight.

  And Karin Love would want to see it.

  Through the back screen, she spotted two men with video cameras, and had no doubt they'd been sent to film Lex's terror for the monster Lex called Mother.

  Lex shuddered, understanding at last that Rune held her. She grabbed Rune with a desperate hold and buried her bruised face against her, humming softly.

  Rune shook with rage. They'd pushed the little Other too far this time, and Rune was terrified she wasn't getting her mind back. Terrified that finally, even after years in the cruel grip of Karin Love, Lex had broken.

  “What’d they do to you?”

  But Lex couldn’t answer.

  She clung tightly as Rune stood, trying to burrow through her side, to safety. And trying, whether she realized it or not, to feed her addiction.

  Rune held a gun in one hand and with her left arm around Lex, walked from the cage and down the ramp.

  The humans tripped over each other trying to back out of the way.

  Three of them, right in front of her, stumbled and fell to the ground. The one closest was a stern man in a business suit. His glasses askew, he tried to scoot back away from her, but couldn’t get through the crowd.

  She leaned over and put her gun to his forehead. "Point out a slayer."

  He pointed to the man next to him, who scrambled up and tried to lose himself in the crowd.

  Even with Lex holding onto her, she had no trouble. She holstered her gun and grabbed him by the back of his neck before he could manage to extricate himself from the crowd. She yanked him to her.

  "He's a fucking liar," the man screamed. "He's the slayer. I'm not COS!"

  Lex moaned, as though she could smell the word COS.

  "Take me to Horner."

  "He'll kill me!"

  She dropped her fangs. “I’ll kill you worse.”

  He held his hands up. "Wait! Okay."

  The crowd thinned as most people finally managed to fight their way to the gates.

  She didn't care about the crowd. She wanted Horner.

  The slayer led her behind the cage and pointed toward a large tent. "He was in there." Then he backed away, his hands in the air. “Can I…” Then he gave her a terrified but hopeful look, turned, and ran away.

  She let him go. As much as she wanted to slash his throat and leave him to bleed out on the ground, she let him go.

  She knew before she stepped into the tent, almost fully supporting Lex, that Horner was gone.

  He'd left hastily—a few trampled bills lay on the ground, most likely dropped as he'd grabbed the money and split.

  But though he'd fled like a frightened child, he'd left men behind to see to her.

  When she headed back out, a dozen of them were waiting for her.

  They stood in a line, rifles pointed, and it was Lex who saved them both.

  The slayers must have had orders to try taking their little money maker alive, because they hesitated.

  Even Horner wouldn’t have wanted his slayers shooting close to the crowd of humans. But there were no humans near the tent.

  She turned and ran back inside the meager shelter, her arm around Lex’s waist, carrying the little Other along with her. At the back of the tent, she shot out the claws of her free hand and sliced through the wall.

  They were surrounded by slayers with guns.

  “Son of a bitch,” she muttered. If she left Lex inside the tent and went to kick slayer ass, someone would take the girl.

  As fast as she was, and as strong, outside the tent waited a hell of a lot of guns. They wouldn’t kill her, but they could stop her long enough for COS to get Lex.

  And she wasn’t willing to let that happen. Not again.

  “Send the girl out,” a man yelled. “Or she’ll die along with you.”

  “Okay,” Rune called. “Just don’t shoot.”

  Lex mumbled something.

  Rune squeezed her shoulder. “I’ve got you.” Then suddenly, she had an idea of how to help Lex come out of the darkness.

  She pried Lex’s arm away from her waist and clamped the Other’s cold fingers around her wrist. “Read me, baby. I could use your help.”

  Lex tightened her fingers around Rune’s wrist, and that’s when Rune knew the girl was still there.

  Lex began vibrating,
just a tiny bit.

  “Send her now,” the man screamed, and started shooting. He shot high to scare her, ripping the top of the tent to shreds.

  The slayers at the back of the tent heard gunfire. They began shooting as well, and they did not aim high.

  “Fuck,” she screamed, and pushed Lex to the ground. She threw herself on top of the Other. Lex couldn’t take a bullet.

  Lex shook her head violently. “Take them out,” she cried.

  “Lexi…” Rune tightened her grip. “I’ve got you.”

  But Lex would not be still. She pulled her arm from under Rune and slapped at her ear. “Take them out, please, take them out.”

  God. Rune closed her eyes. Lex wanted the plugs out of her ears. “I can’t, baby.”

  The gunfire stuttered to a stop.

  “He wants her alive, you stupid fucks,” a man screeched.

  “You started shooting,” another man yelled. “What the fuck was I sup—” Then there was one more shot, and the man arguing didn’t say another word.

  The slayers were afraid to come inside the tent. They knew what Rune could do.

  “Is Alexis alive?” the first man called. “Is she alive?”

  “Take them out,” Lex screamed.

  “I hear her,” the man said. “Send her out, Alexander.”

  “They hurt so much,” Lex whimpered. “It’s too dark. I can’t feel. I can’t think. I can’t see.” She started digging for the plugs while she struggled to get out from under Rune.

  “Okay,” Rune said. She pulled Lex’s fingers away from her ears. “Let me try.”

  As though she understood Rune was going to help her, Lex went still and silent.

  “We’re coming in,” the man yelled.

  “I’m sending her out,” Rune called. “Just give me a fucking minute to tell her goodbye.” Maybe it’d buy her a few seconds, maybe not. But it was all she had.

  She closed her eyes, felt for the end of one of the plugs, and finally, got a grip on it. There was no easing it free. She took a deep breath and dug the plug out, then flung it across the tent. “Lex?”

  But Lex had gone boneless and quiet.

  Rune left the other plug where it was. One out would have to be enough, because not even Lex could get her to do that again.