by Laken Cane
It took her ten minutes to get herself under control.
Finally anger took the place of fear and scorn replaced shame. Fuck you, Jeremy. Who was he to shame her? He was the true monster.
Whatever came, she’d deal with it.
She and her fucking monster.
As she climbed in her car Mitch called. “Giving you a heads-up so you can get ready, Rune. In two days we’re scheduled for the River Run Hall meeting. Get something nice to wear.”
“God,” she said, groaning.
He laughed. “You’ll have fun. I promise.”
Yeah.
Like she still believed in promises.
Chapter Seventeen
They met at the office. Rune, the twins, and Lex would ride to River Run Hall together. Jack, Z, and Raze would follow in Raze’s truck.
They were dressed up Shiv Crew style, which meant mostly black with some bright spots of color. Each of them wore a special silver shiv, ornate and beautiful, which usually hung behind glass at home for show.
Rune’s had been with her ever since she could remember—a leftover from a childhood she sometimes saw through a haze of doubt.
Raze had taken his off the first man he’d killed in battle—a relic his adversary had stolen from a witch in New Orleans.
Rune had given Z his for his last birthday. She’d searched for months for the perfect one before finding it in the small collection of an ancient Japanese gentleman.
Jack had found his on eBay, or so he’d said. She didn’t believe him, but it was his secret to keep.
The twins refused to say where they’d gotten theirs—long, gleaming blades with twisted, elaborate handles that made Rune’s mouth water. Even Lex boasted a special blade, stolen, she’d told them, from her mother. But it hadn’t belonged to Karin anyway, she’d added. Not really.
It was also not silver, which would have made the Other sick. It was a steel blade in a gorgeous, matching steel sheath. The handle and sheath both were beautifully designed with vines, heads, and moons.
Denim’s voice, wrapped in a blanket of sorrow and rage, echoed in her mind. “Karin tried to force Lex to develop a tolerance for silver. It didn’t work, but Karin enjoyed trying.”
Rune looked at them, all brushed and polished and striking, and could barely breathe. They were simply beautiful, her crew.
Stunning and dangerous.
She was so proud.
Don’t get all tender, you fucking marshmallow. She turned away from them and glanced in the hand mirror she’d taken from her desk drawer. Every strand of her black hair was in place. Glossy and flowing. She rarely had occasion to dress up and had to admit part of her was enjoying this moment.
She’d put on some makeup, and the eye shadow made her blue eyes even more vivid against her pale skin. She’d stained her lips with a little red lipstick. It matched the single red stone in the center of the black choker Lex had given her.
Over a black blouse she wore a red corset-style vest with matching laces. Soft black leather pants and knee-high black boots completed the outfit.
Her special blade went into a sheath at her back. She also pushed a small blade into her left boot and one into the sheath around her forearm.
Technically they were not working, but they never knew when trouble might pop up. They’d have their show blades, but all of them would be armed with work blades as well.
She took a breath and put the mirror down, turning to face her crew. “We’re stunning, guys. Now let’s go get this over with.”
“And remember,” Z said, “Mitch wants this to be a—”
“Sedate and dignified meeting,” they all chimed in.
Over the last two days he’d drilled that into their heads over and over, as though he was afraid the cameras would start rolling and they’d break into song or start telling jokes.
“We want you to be movie stars of a sort,” he’d said, putting air quotes around movie stars, “but we want them to be respectful of you, to know you are warriors, that you can protect them.”
“We get it, Mitch,” Rune told him. “We won’t be silly. Relax already.”
As though they’d conjured him, Mitch stuck his head in the office to look at them. His face was flushed, his eyes sparking. “Ready, gang? I must say, you all look just wonderful.” He looked at Rune, hesitated, then asked, “You don’t think that top is a little…er…showing a bit too much skin in the below the neck area?”
She rolled her eyes and smoothed her hair one last time. “Stop looking at my boobs, dude.” But then every guy in the room eyed the aforementioned boobs, and she had to fight to keep from hiding her chest behind her hands.
The top wasn’t that low, but no one was used to Rune dressing provocatively. Not even Rune.
Lex took her arm. “Ignore them, Rune. You look divine.”
Rune laughed, but she wasn’t so sure Lex couldn’t see her. The girl was that spooky. Lex had hidden her eyes behind a pair of black sunglasses. On one lens a sparkly pink heart, dissected by a silver shiv, stood out against the black. If Lex hadn’t been blind, that would have annoyed the hell out of her.
“So do you, Lex. Truly beautiful.”
Mitch glanced at his watch. “I’m heading there now, kids. I’ll be waiting with Jeremy and the director. Just remember. The chief wasn’t crazy about this idea. No shenanigans. Sedate and dignified.”
As soon as he withdrew they broke into laughter, then quieted when Ellis stuck his head into the room. “I’m going now too, guys. You all look…” He pressed his lips together. “There are no words.” His gaze lingered on the twins.
The inconceivably gorgeous twins. Their images belonged on a painting in a museum. They were the only ones not wearing black, instead sporting deep reds, chocolate browns, and dark greens.
Denim’s scar twisted down his face, a cruel reminder of a wicked stepfather. But his masculine beauty was not dimmed by his scar.
Ellis hadn’t dressed up, despite Rune’s insistence that he walk through the hall with them. He’d claimed that he had more interesting things to do.
He blew a kiss into the room and hurried away, his excitement palpable.
Raze stood looking out her office window. He had his dark red hair tied back loosely with a thin black cloth. All that hair cascaded over the black of his shirt, and was his only contrasting color.
He was the most uncomfortable of them all. “Trotted out and paraded around like circus freaks,” he’d muttered, but other than that hadn’t said a word.
“Raze,” she called, suppressing a smile. He was so enormous, so obviously awkward, and as high on the hotness meter as the rest of the men. “You doing okay, baby?”
He growled.
And finally, it was time to go.
When they arrived at the hall the huge parking lot was overflowing with vehicles, and the street was taking the spillover. Rune and Raze pulled up to the front doors. Valets would drive their vehicles to the back of the building.
The atmosphere was that of a county fair. The hall was enormous, but Rune wasn’t sure how it could possibly hold all those people. It looked like the entire population of River County had turned out.
Rune would walk in first, followed by Lex, then Denim and Levi, side by side but spaced apart, and behind them Z. Behind him would be the two giants, Jack and Raze.
Rune had refused to show up if Lex wasn’t included.
When they reached the big double doors, the waiting doormen pushed them open and Shiv Crew strode in. There were audible gasps as the audience got an up close and personal glimpse of those who kept them safe from the monsters, all decked out and too pretty for words along with a good dose of scary as fuck.
The crew began to walk down a red-carpet-covered aisle. The audience stood on both sides, cordoned off by thick velvet ropes.
They were watching quietly. The message was clear. Shiv Crew was to be looked at, not touched. Rune wasn’t crazy about the separation. Or the quiet.
The peop
le, young and old, male and female, stood behind the ropes with curious faces, but no one was smiling. No one looked at ease.
Halfway down the long, long path that led to the stage, something made her look up. She wasn’t sure what—perhaps a movement, perhaps a feeling.
In the corner, high up on the wall was a bank of windows accessible only by stairs backstage. Behind those windows stood Ellis, his grin wide and white. He waved at her, then held up a finger. Wait for it.
When he was sure he had her attention, he looked down and fiddled with something. And suddenly the whole hall was filled with music, loud and wild, coming out of every speaker set up in River Run Hall.
At first the audience stood in stunned silence, unsure, but then Lex began to dance.
A group of teens joined in, and in seconds the whole atmosphere changed from serious and solemn to just plain fun.
Shiv Crew kept walking, but now they were smiling as well. Rune glanced behind her at Lex who was dancing to the irresistible music, framed by the beautiful twins.
Behind Ellis, who’d locked the large glass doors before he’d hit the music, stood police director Rice, flanked on either side by Mitch and Jeremy—and they were pissed.
The police director gestured furiously, his face flushed. Jeremy began beating on the doors, shouting words she couldn’t hear.
She laughed, and unable to help it, began dancing as well. Shiv Crew kept on walking toward the stage, the two girls dancing as they went.
Strad stood against the wall by the stage, unsmiling and serious.
Watching her.
The audience was thrilled. They danced, yelled, sang. They began waving, and whistling.
Z grabbed Rune around the waist and they grinned at each other as they danced. She glanced up to see Ellis enjoying his own dance as he completely ignored the men behind the glass at his back, and the trouble he was almost certainly in.
A boy in the audience, perhaps trying to impress the girls who surrounded him, grabbed what looked like a phone case from the girl next to him, drew back his arm, and threw it at Lex.
Obviously word had already spread about the blind Other.
The object hurtled toward the dancing girl with ferocious intent, and the absolute millisecond before it hit her she had it in her hand.
Denim had stepped back out of the way to let Lex handle it. Rune was relieved he hadn’t snatched it out of the air and then gone to beat the hell out of the boy.
Lex grinned and hurled it back at the boy. Hard.
Her attempt was better than his—the case made it to his head. He dropped like a rock. The girls next to him laughed and kept right on dancing.
Rune made a mental note to remember that Lex could take care of herself.
High above, Mitch dropped his face into his hands.
When Shiv Crew had nearly reached the stage, the song ended. Still, the people were feeling better, and the hall had a definite party atmosphere.
All because of one song and Ellis, who did indeed deserve his big head.
As she passed him, Rune met the berserker’s gaze. His stare dropped with deliberate intent to her breasts.
She shivered as gooseflesh arose on her skin.
Fucking berserker.
His muscles bunched as he crossed his arms, still watching her, his face unreadable. The tip of his silver spear peeked over his massive shoulder. He wore his usual uniform of black T-shirt, camouflage pants, and a pair of boots that looked older than Rune.
She forced her attention from the huge man and along with her crew, climbed the few stairs to the stage.
The officers ran back down the stairs and Rice, panting and slightly purple in the face, strode onto the stage with the crew. He was not happy, but wasn’t about to let the audience know that.
“Well,” he boomed into the mic, “that was some entrance!” Then he looked over at the crew. “Ladies and gentlemen, Shiv Crew!”
The audience went nuts, yelling and clapping, and he had to wait—impatiently if the tapping of his toe was any indication—a good three minutes for them to calm down.
He introduced them one by one. Rune got the longest applause, Lex got the loudest. The twins got only scattered applause because everyone in the audience was too busy snapping pictures of them to clap.
Z had every girl in the room hooting and screaming out invitations. He blew them kisses and tossed them a couple of winks. There would be many dreams about Z that night.
The giants had the girls swooning and the guys doing mock battles. One lady, at least a hundred years old, decided she was going up on stage to feel Raze’s and Jack’s muscles.
When it became obvious it would take her a week to get up there, Raze shocked everyone by jumping off the stage, picking the old lady up, and carrying her up to the stage. She spent the remainder of the time going from man to man, feeling him up.
The audience began yelling out questions.
“What will you do if the city is attacked?”
“Will you take occasional ride-alongs?”
“Does Z have a girlfriend?”
Rune started getting impatient long before the director was ready to release them. She’d decided to lead the crew out whether he liked it or not, when Mitch dashed on stage and whispered in the director’s ear.
Rice held up his hand to halt the questions. “I apologize, but there is an emergency and Shiv Crew is needed in the field.”
Before he’d finished speaking Rune and the others were hurrying out the back door and into the parking lot, the sound of applause behind them.
Rune took a deep breath of the fresh, cold air. It was only seven o’clock but already dark. The high streetlights cast an eerie yellow glow on the parking lot. “What’s going on, Mitch?”
Jeremy came out to join them, his stare going immediately to Rune. She looked away, but her heart began to beat hard and fast. Damn him.
Lex slid her fingers into Rune’s hand, and though Rune wanted to pull away, she didn’t. Lex probably sensed her distress and was trying to comfort her. Rune wasn’t going to throw that back in the girl’s face.
Just please don’t read me.
Strad slipped through the door and stood in the background, quiet and watchful. As always.
“There’s a battle at the graveyard.”
“Wormwood?” asked Levi.
“Yes. I really don’t want to send you in, so I’m giving you a choice. There are two reasons I’m even considering putting you in such danger.” He gave Jeremy a long, hard look. “One, because there was a human spotted in their midst, and she may be one of the girls kidnapped over the last couple of months. The second reason is the purge.” Again, he leveled a look at Jeremy, and it was not a friendly look.
Rune frowned. What the hell is going on here?
Jeremy simply shrugged and raised an eyebrow, not flinching from Mitch’s silent accusations.
Raze crossed his arms. “Vampires are fighting.”
Ah. Rune understood but didn’t interrupt or so much as glance at Jeremy as Mitch nodded and continued.
“The reports we received have the vampires and the wolves brawling. I don’t know what the fight is about, but neither side needs much of an excuse.” He looked around at them all, one by one. “Thing is, I don’t want to send my crew into such danger. I’m going to leave it up to you to think hard about it and decide. A human’s life may be in danger, true, and that is the only reason I’m allowing you to risk your own lives. Even though,” he added, “RISC seems to think it would be a good opportunity to continue the vampire purge. I do not agree.”
Rune held up a hand. “Mitch. If you’re going to be SCRU director, you need to understand—this is what we do. We save humans.” She finally looked at Jeremy, knowing her stare would be as unfriendly as Mitch’s had been. “If you wanted to send us in simply because the vampires are there and you wanted an unsubstantiated purge, I’d refuse.”
Jack took up her explanation. “If there’s the slightest chance ther
e’s a human caught in the middle of that mess, we’re going in.”
Raze nodded. “It’s what we do. We protect the humans.”
Mitch had a worried frown, but deep in his eyes was a proud gleam. He was like a daddy watching his kids do something awesome.
And that made Rune frown, suspicious. Mitch was trying a little too hard to prove his loyalty. Or maybe she was being paranoid.
Maybe.
“I know. But I don’t like giving orders that could potentially cause one of you not to come back.” He cleared his throat, then pointed his chin at Lex. “She is not going.”
Rune opened her mouth—not to argue—but Mitch didn’t know that. He was accustomed to Rune arguing.
“Not a word,” he said to Rune. “You are not to take that girl.”
Rune inclined her head. “Okay.”
His eyes widened. He pursed his lips, then frowned. His face was as readable as any book. He continued staring at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether or not she was being a smartass.
She just smiled.
Lex was not happy. Her body tensing, she started to argue. “I want to—”
“Lex,” Denim interrupted. “No.” His voice was soft, but there was a thread of steel running through it.
Lex sighed. She pulled her hand from Rune’s and crossed her arms, anger in every line of her body. She was a resilient Other, but then she’d had few choices during her life. She either bounced back or let the horror take her.
They all looked toward the door when it opened. Ellis, wearing a tentative smile, walked out.
Rune sighed. Mitch and Jeremy were not going to go easy on him, probably because Rice was going to chew their asses.
As expected, both men turned on Ellis.
Strad insinuated his mountain of a body between Ellis and the two men and just looked at them.
They never said a word.
Seriously? The berserker is protecting my people now?
Damn him. What the hell was he trying to do?
Ellie peeked around Strad’s arm, trying to look apologetic, but his grin kept popping through.
