by Laken Cane
“Dude,” Jack said. He shook hands with Tina, who stared a moment too long at his eye patch before transferring her wide-eyed stare to the scar twisting its way down Denim’s face. Jack grinned at Strad. “You have a sister?”
“No.” Rune smiled, and it stretched across her face in an almost painful way. “He has a wife.”
She made the mistake of looking at Strad as she said it. He caught her stare in the snare of his own and refused to let go.
Fuck you, Berserker.
Tina looked from one to the other, frowning. “It’s obvious you two have some issues with one another, but please, put them aside for now. Matthew is in danger.”
Rune nodded and managed to drag her stare away from the huge berserker. “You’re right.” Major issues.
Strad caught the new arrivals up quickly and then picked up where he’d left off. “Someone attempted to abduct my son a few weeks ago.”
“No leads at all?” Rune folded her arms, wishing she’d thought to grab a cup of coffee from the break room.
“Not really. Three men broke into my…into Tina’s home and attacked her. They wanted Matthew. He was sleeping at his grandparents’ that night—that’s what saved him. Because his gift is not so secret now, everyone wants to see if he can find their missing people.”
No one asked the question on everyone’s mind, so Strad continued. His expression was cold—he knew they were judging him. “I’ve decided the best thing for him is to bring him here so I can protect him.”
“And you guys,” Tina said. She twisted her hands together and looked with beseeching eyes at Shiv Crew. “You’ll help protect him, won’t you?”
“Yeah,” Rune said, looking at no one. “We’ll do everything we can.”
Tina buried her face in her hands and started sobbing, and Z patted her on the shoulder. Z’s weakness was women—he couldn’t bear to see one mistreated or unhappy.
She finally regained control and tossed a smile at Z.
“You okay?” Strad asked her.
She nodded, but didn’t offer him a smile.
Strad went on. “We’re in the dark. We’ve questioned every group from wolves to the local Church of Slayers.”
Lex moaned and hid her face behind her hands.
“Fuck,” Rune said.
Levi and Denim immediately put their arms around Lex and led her from the room.
“I’m sorry,” Strad said. He rubbed his eyes. “Fucking mess.”
Tina frowned. “Strad.”
“What, Tina? It is a fucking mess.”
She blushed when the crew looked at her but straightened her shoulders and changed the subject. “What’s wrong with Lex?”
“Her mother is Karin Love,” Rune explained. “Founder of the Church of Slayers.”
“What? I thought Lex was an…”
“An Other? She is. Her mother was raped by Others. She made sure Lex paid for that fact until finally Karin went to prison and the twins got Lex out of the church. Even the mention of COS sends Lex back into that nightmare world.”
COS had disbanded when Karin Love and half the members had been sent to prison—but all over the country, small branches continued to pop up. They all claimed the same thing—they had separated themselves from Karin Love and they did not harm Others. But they strongly believed in a world free of monsters—and no one pretended to believe COS wasn’t still doing terrible, illegal things.
When unlawful activity was proven, the branch in question would be taken down. Almost immediately another took its place.
“There’s a branch in…” Rune gestured at Tina. She had no idea where in Pennsylvania Strad’s wife had lived.
“Yeah. Philadelphia. Every inch of the church has been searched. Those who belong to PCOS have had their properties searched, been questioned…threatened. Nothing turned up.” He rubbed his face. “The attempt could have been made by anyone.”
Rune sighed. “You’ll need someone to babysit them when you can’t be there.”
“I hired a couple of men.”
“You hired werewolves,” Tina said, shuddering. “I can’t relax with them in the apartment, watching my every move.”
Rune stared at her for a long moment, then glanced at Strad. “If you need someone else, a floater Shiv Crew uses is a badass. Her name is Sherry.” She threw a look at Tina. “She’s human.”
“And a woman,” Tina said, eagerly. She pulled a pen and paper from her purse. “May I get her number?”
“We’re still keeping the wolves, Tina.”
She narrowed her eyes at Strad. “Fine, they can be there sometimes. But I’d rather have a woman in the house, thank you. Especially when I’m sleeping.”
He shrugged, then nodded at Rune. “If you recommend her.”
Rune gave Tina the floater’s number. Sherry, besides lending her services to Shiv Crew when they needed an extra hand, was also the sister of one of Rune’s wolves.
She’d also staked Rune’s mother, but Rune couldn’t really hold that against her. She’d been doing the job Rune had hired her to do.
Ellis stuck his head into the room. “Can he come back in now?”
“Yes,” Tina said.
The boy walked back into the room with Ellis, his candy bar almost gone.
Rune addressed her next question to both parents. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just allow the kid to help find missing people? I know it’d be impossible for him to help everyone who needs it, but maybe if you took the most serious cases.”
“No,” Strad said. That was all, just no.
Tina put her arm around Matthew. “Matthew found a missing child for a family friend fifteen months ago. My fault, I’m aware,” she snapped, looking at Strad. “It nearly killed him. He still has not recovered. He—”
As if on cue, Matthew gasped and dropped his candy. His entire body stiffened and his eyes rolled so far back only the whites were visible.
His back arched and he fell, but Strad caught him and gently lowered him to the floor. Tina put her fingers to her mouth, backing away from the seizing boy.
“That,” she half-screamed, looking at Rune. “That’s from finding the last child.”
“Z, call 911,” Rune ordered, and dropped to the floor beside the child and his father. “Jack—”
“No,” Strad interrupted. “Paramedics can’t help. Doctors can’t help. We’ve had him to the best.”
“His doctor gave me Valium for these episodes, but they don’t stop them. They only make him sicker.” Tina leaned weakly against the wall, her face pale, eyes wide. “Oh God please. Please.”
“Tina,” Rune said. “You take the Valium. Jack, get her some water.” She looked at Strad. “What do we do?”
“We wait,” he said.
Tina huddled in the corner muttering about suppositories, but she took the water when Jack handed it to her.
The seizure lasted for nearly five minutes and when he came out of it, Matthew lay quiet, dazed.
“He’ll sleep now,” Strad said. “I’ll take him home.”
Tina finally pushed away from the wall and leaned over to smooth her son’s hair over his forehead. “We need a home. He needs a home.” Her voice was low, angry.
“I’m looking,” Strad answered.
Rune stared at the boy, pretending not to be listening to the conversation. We need a home.
“Your apartment is certainly not good enough. There’s not even a back yard or a place he can safely—”
“He is not the one complaining,” Strad said, “and will be fine until I find a secure place.” He shot an uncomfortable look at the others in the room.
If the circumstances hadn’t been so serious, Rune might have laughed. The berserker doing something as mundane as arguing with his wife…who would have thought?
Rune had never been to the berserker’s house and had no idea where he lived. “I’ll need your address so I can come check on him or sit with him if you need me to.”
“Thank you,” Tina sa
id, and gave Rune the address.
Rune smiled. “It’s what we do. We protect the humans.” Once upon a time, they’d protected only the humans. Not so now. Now, they protected anyone—human or Other—who needed protecting.
She watched as the berserker lifted his son from the floor. With a tenderness she hadn’t thought the huge, raging man capable of, he carried the boy from the room.
She sighed. “I’m going to see Raze.” She looked at Jack and Z, who’d stood quietly during the events of the last few minutes. “Anyone want to go with me?”
“He won’t see you, Rune,” Ellis said. “Go have some lunch.”
“And coffee,” Jack added. He knew about Rune’s coffee addiction.
“After. I’m going to see Raze.”
No one mentioned the berserker or his sudden family.
As she strode down the hall, Z and Jack on either side of her, Lex and the twins came out of the break room. Lex looked fine—the setbacks, while sudden and vicious, never kept her down for long.
“You okay, Lex?” she asked.
“I am.”
“Good.”
“Rune—”
“Not right now.” Rune did not want questions about Strad.
She had no idea how to answer them.
But her body was aching. It was craving blood that had been withheld for too long. Not long ago she’d have ignored its calling, but things had changed.
She and her monster had merged, much like RISC and SCRU.
Now, now she wanted to feed.
Would feed.
It was just a question of from whom the blood would flow.
Chapter Four
“I tried to bring Raze out to see you. He refused to come.”
She stared up at the young cop, not surprised. “Let me into his pod.”
“Now you know I can’t do that.” But he picked at his thumbnail, darting his eyes away from hers.
She just smiled.
“Dammit, Alexander. I can’t just let you into a pod.”
“He won’t come out so I have no choice. Take me back, Greg.”
“He only has two days left. Come on. You can wait two days to see him.”
She shook her head. “I need to see him now. It’s RISC business or I wouldn’t insist.”
He believed the lie, or maybe he just wanted to believe it. “You can’t discuss much in there, you know.”
“We’ll manage. Take me back.”
He sighed. “If I get my ass chewed for this—”
“You won’t.”
He didn’t appear convinced, but did as she asked. It didn’t hurt that he had a crush on her. Before they got far, though, an older guard Rune wasn’t as familiar with stopped them.
“He changed his mind. You can see him in a private room.” He winked.
She lifted an eyebrow. “Raze changed his mind?”
“He said he knew you wouldn’t go away.” Again, he winked.
Asshole. “Just bring him.”
“Already did. Come on, girl. I’ll take you back and we’ll give you oh…twenty minutes. That should be plenty of time to do what you can’t wait two days for.”
She sighed. It wouldn’t be the best idea to deck the son of a bitch, but she was tempted to do it anyway. “Greg will take me back. You need to get the fuck out of my face.”
He dropped his jolly smile like a hot rock. “Be careful, Alexander. You don’t scare as many people as you think you do.”
“I don’t want to scare you. But this is the last warning I’m going to give you to get the fuck out of my face.” She moved her shoulders to loosen them, then dropped her fangs. They made an audible click when they popped through her gums.
Shit. Why did I do that?
She was embracing her Other a little too eagerly. The first part of her life had been spent hiding what she was, but after the Hawthorne battle and the clinic, she was showing herself all over the place. Part of her stood and watched in embarrassed horror, but her fucking Other was strong and unashamed.
Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe it wasn’t.
And in spite of what the guard had said, he was scared. His eyes widened and he took an involuntary step back. Which, of course, pissed him off even more.
He clenched his fists, his face reddening. “Fucking monster.”
She hadn’t heard that word for weeks, except in her own head. “What did you just say to me?” She ignored the old familiar shame streaking through her. She was past that.
She was.
Greg got between them. “Stop it right the fuck now, both of you. Alexander, I will put you out of here if I have to.” He glanced at her mouth and the fangs peeking out. “Put those away.” He looked at the other guard. “Boyle, shut the fuck up.”
And with Boyle glaring after them, he took Rune to see Raze.
Raze stood in the middle of the smallish room, his hands on his hips, waiting for her. He wasn’t happy.
It was just her day to piss people off.
“Ten minutes,” Greg said, and shut the door.
She wasn’t going to argue for more time—neither man would have appreciated that.
Raze was huge—the largest member of Shiv Crew next to Strad, who was the biggest man Rune had ever seen. But somehow, in his too short jail uniform, he looked smaller.
“You’ve lost weight,” she said. “I’ve heard county food is pretty awful.”
“Why are you here, Rune?”
She blew out a long breath. “I needed to see for myself that you were okay. I was gone a long time.”
“About as long as I’ve been in jail.” His voice softened. “You didn’t abandon us.”
“Two more days. You get out Friday.”
“I’m aware.” Finally, a little humor in his eyes. Raze wasn’t the smiling type.
“I guess you would be.”
“I miss my weapons more than just about anything.”
“I know what that feels like.”
“Anything I need to know?”
“Yeah, actually. Rock County alpha—”
“Already heard. What else?”
“Want to sit?”
“No. That’s all I do in here.”
She nodded and reached out to squeeze his forearm. He wasn’t the smiling type and she wasn’t the touchy-feely type. Her touch on his arm surprised him.
“Are you okay, Rune?”
She grinned. “I’m okay. So anyway, the berserker went away to Pennsylvania while I was in the clinic. You heard about him leaving?”
Raze nodded. “Didn’t hear why he went, though.”
She forced the words out, hoping her eyes were blank. “He brought back a wife and a kid.”
His jaw dropped. “The fuck?”
“Yeah. We all were a little…shocked.”
He ran his hand through his long, dark-red hair. “Dammit, Rune.”
She shrugged. “The kid is in trouble. He’s about eight years old and get this—he’s clairvoyant.”
Raze sat down at the chipped table. “Strad has a wife and a psychic kid. Go on.”
She smiled inwardly and sat as well. “Strad and his…wife tried to keep the secret of what the little boy could do, but it got out. Long story short, when the kid does his reading, tries to find a person, whatever, it makes him sick. Worse than sick—does a lot of damage. He’s not recovered from the last reading he did months ago.
“So a few weeks ago some assholes broke into the Matheson’s house to kidnap Matthew. There are no leads. If someone succeeds in taking the boy and forces him to use his gift, it’ll kill him. From what I’ve seen, no way can Matthew withstand doing another reading.”
“So Strad brought the family here.” He nodded. “Best place for the kid with Shiv Crew looking out for him.”
“Yes.”
He stood and began pacing. “I need the fuck out of this hole.”
“I know, baby.”
He stopped pacing and looked at her. “COS is starting a branch in Spiritgrov
e.”
She jumped to her feet. “Fuck no.”
He nodded. “It won’t be good when Lex hears.”
“Bastards. Fuck. Where are they building?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m going to—”
“No. Wait for me to get out.”
She barely heard him. “They’re already here. Why was I not told about this?”
“I doubt RISC knows. One of the fucks in my pod was bragging to his buddy about it. He said signups will begin next week.”
“Fucking signups?”
“Yup. COS wants all the members they can get, but they check them out pretty thoroughly first.”
“To what? Make sure no vampires are trying to join?” She half-laughed, but had never been more unamused in her life.
“I’m worried about Lex.” He studied the wall, which held nothing more interesting than a faint green paint.
She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Could it be? “Raze?”
“Just keep an eye on her.” His voice was gruff. “You need to get going.”
She stood. What a fucking day. “Does she know?”
“There’s nothing to know.” He strode to the door and banged on it until Greg pulled it open. “I’ll see you Friday.”
And he was gone.
She’d just climbed into her car when her cell rang. She glanced at the display. Strad. Dammit. “What’s up, Strad?”
“Just checking on you.”
His voice sent chills down her spine. Married or not, his blood was inside her. “I’m fine.”
“Rune…” he hesitated. “Are you hungry?”
She knew he didn’t mean for food. Her body tightened, crying out for what she needed, what she was hungry for. “Are you divorced?”
“We’ve been separated for years. But no, we’re not divorced.”
“Then fuck off, Berserker.”
“You have to feed.”
“I plan on it. Just not from you.”
“You will not go to someone else.”
“Fuck you!” She hung up and tossed the phone into the passenger seat as though it hurt to touch it. Fucking berserker.
And fucking COS. Spiritgrove was the biggest town in River County, so it made sense they’d start a branch there—but still she wondered if they were coming to River County because that’s where Lex and the twins were.
