by Laken Cane
What the fuck had she done?
Chapter Ten
Anxiety filled him. It oozed from him, that anxiety, like noxious, bubbling water from a toxic spring.
Lex slid up beside him and grabbed his hand.
He glanced down at her. “What’s wrong, honey? Was I hit on the head? I can’t remember anything. We were fighting the zombies and I…” He trailed off, then his eyes widened. “I was bitten.”
“Yes,” Rune said.
“What happened to your hair?”
“I was bitten as well. Yours…”
He slapped a hand to his head, suddenly realizing. “I was bitten. I was infected. You fed me?”
“Yes.”
“You healed me from a zombie infection.”
“I…”
Raze stepped up beside them, Levi’s cell in hand. “Ellis is having trouble.”
Levi shook his head once, hard, as if trying to shake something loose that didn’t belong there. “Ellis?” He listened, staring at Rune as though she was his lifeline and he would die if he stopped looking at her.
She turned away, unable to bear the weight of his stare.
What was he? What had she made him? A…living zombie? That wasn’t even possible. Was it?
When he figured it out, he was not going to forgive her.
She was not going to forgive her.
“I…I don’t know,” he was saying to Ellis. “I feel fucked up. I don’t know anything.” He paused. “Yes. I’m alive.”
Rune shut her eyes and clenched her fists so hard she broke the skin. Raze was suddenly beside her.
He pulled her to his chest. “Don’t.”
She laughed, a harsh barking sound that held absolutely no amusement. “Oh Raze. What the fuck have I done?”
He took her by the shoulders and shook her. “He’s alive. You saved him, is what the fuck you’ve done.” He shook her again. “Now snap out of it. We have work to do and this shit will sort itself out.”
“How can it?” she asked.
“It has no choice, does it?”
“I guess it doesn’t.”
“I feel like I need to sleep,” Levi interrupted. “I feel like…”
“You’re confused,” Lex said, her vibrations strong. “You’re walking through a fog and it has grabby hands.”
Rune nodded. “Go lie down, Levi. Sleep. I’ll wake you in a bit and you’ll feel better.”
He didn’t say a word—simply turned and walked away. They watched him in silence as he lay down on the couch and immediately went to sleep.
And she knew that when he woke up, he’d feel better.
Lex was staring in Rune’s direction, her dancing eyes dark. “You…” she said. Nothing more. Just “You…”
“Yeah,” Rune said. She started to bite her fingernail, realized what she was doing, and stopped. Me. And my monster.
“What…” Lex held out her hand.
Raze took it.
Lex shuddered, then tried again. “What is he?”
Rune shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“But what do you think?” Raze asked.
She pressed her lips together. “I think he’s something I’ve never seen before.”
“You command him,” Lex said. “You’ve made him your…slave.” She curled her lip and put her free hand to her chest. Despite her disgust and anger, her face was stark and full of desperation.
“Would you rather he’d died?” Rune closed her eyes in a slow blink, wishing she could retract the words. “I’m sorry, baby.” She gestured helplessly at the peacefully sleeping Levi. “I’m sorry.”
“Do not tell Denim,” Lex said. “And try to refrain from ordering Levi directly. Maybe it will wear off. Maybe he won’t notice.”
“He’s alive,” Raze told the angry Other, his voice soft.
“Maybe,” was all Lex would say.
“I’m better,” Rune said. She had to get out of the stifling room. “But I may need to feed again to help Z. Lex, guard Levi. Raze and I will go help the crew.”
“Rune—”
Rune cut her off. “I’ll bring Denim back. I’ll bring them all back. And everything will be okay.”
“Do you have your cell?” Lex asked. “Just in case?”
Rune hesitated, understanding suddenly that Lex was afraid. She glanced up at Raze. “Raze…”
“I’ll stay with her,” he said. “Be careful.”
She stopped at the door, unsettled, and put her cell on vibrate before stuffing it back into her pocket. “I will. Try to call the crew. If you get any of them, text me their locations.” She had no idea if they’d collected their phones or not. She could only hope they had.
She pulled the door open the slightest bit and peered through.
She saw no movement, no zombies, no people. It was just dead quiet and eerie as fuck. The sky was overcast but the sun peeked through some clouds, lighting the area in a colorful, strange way.
From the moment they’d entered Rock County, nothing had been right. She had a feeling things were going to get worse.
She jogged down the street, alert for any movement or sound. The weird light combined with the dead quiet to make Rock County seem like a different planet.
She didn’t like it.
And now she was out alone with a town full of zombies. Well, not really alone. She had her monster.
Up ahead she spotted three zombies. Chunks of their deformed, rotting bodies broke off and splattered the pavement as they shuffled toward her.
She dropped her fangs and sent her lethal claws out. Where the fuck were the rest of the bastards?
Probably battling her crew.
She ran toward the zombies. She dropped the first one quickly, but zombies had no fear. As she was killing the first one, the other two came right on, craving her living flesh.
She didn’t have to work hard to destroy them. She’d fed Levi and was still strong enough to kill without breaking a sweat.
She was growing in strength. Soon, she might have no real weaknesses.
Not if she fed—and the days of denying her monster were over.
Zombie body parts littered the street around her almost before she realized she had nothing left to kill.
Night would come soon. She wondered if the vampires would come with it. They could help the crew, if she could convince them to do so.
If any humans remained in Rock County they were hiding. Most of them appeared to have become zombies—strange, somehow altered zombies.
But where were the Others? Where were the wolves and shifters?
At that exact second, she spotted a wolf crossing the street a half a block away.
The wolf was bony. His swaying head hung low between sharp shoulder blades. As she watched, he listed to the side and fell over.
His paws scrabbled against the pavement. Finally, he climbed with torturous slowness back to his feet and continued on his way with drunken, weaving steps.
She jogged toward him. That he was injured was obvious, but she needed some answers. If she could get him to shift and talk to her…
She was about fifteen feet from him when the wolf heard her, stopped his rambling walk, and turned around.
It was then she realized what had happened to the Others.
They’d been infected. The wolf looking at her now was not just a wolf, he was a zombie wolf.
“No fucking way.” Weres couldn’t be made into zombies. They couldn’t.
Yet there he was.
And if the new zombie humans were faster and stronger, what would a zombie wolf be like?
Slow at first, until they got their first sniff or taste of human flesh? Or blood?
He growled, then opened his misshapen mouth to show broken, sharp teeth. His eyes were black, pure black, except for a sudden bright spark of joy.
And like the starving, desperate zombie he was, the wolf went for her.
Chapter Eleven
He was no match for Rune, despite his hunger
and lack of fear. She moved to the side as he leaped at her, and drove her heavy, razor claws into his skull.
As he lay on the ground, she pulled one of her longer shivs and took his head. Just in case.
If she’d been less alert, the next wolf would probably have torn her head off, but she was Shiv Crew.
Shiv Crew barely relaxed when off duty. No one was going to sneak up on them. She whirled around and drove a claw through his eye and into his brain with almost perfect precision.
She knelt to clean the blade and her claws on the downed wolf’s fur. Zombie fucking wolves. Unbelievable.
When she saw movement from the corner of her eye she shot to her feet, a gun in one hand and a silver blade as long as her forearm in the other.
She’d dropped her fangs, as well. It was good to cover all bases.
Another wolf crept down the street toward her, but that wasn’t what caused her to back up a step. “Oh, shit.”
Behind the creeping wolf were what appeared to be at least fifty Others. Other zombies. New zombies.
She holstered the gun and the blade and shot her claws back out, forcing them to lengthen.
The zombies caught her scent.
It was as if the smell of living flesh gave them energy and a spark that was almost life. Their ears perked up, their faces lifted as they sniffed the air, and then, they saw her.
It never occurred to her to run. She wasn’t going to turn her back on a pack of zombie Others.
Not yet.
She’d do what she did best.
Fight.
Then they were upon her.
After that, she didn’t stop moving, not for a millisecond. If she had, they would have torn her to pieces.
They piled on top of each other in their eagerness to reach the scent driving them crazy, and that slowed them down.
Still, it wasn’t enough that she was a super monster. Didn’t matter that she used her built-in shivs to slice the zombies up.
There were simply too many of them.
Because even as she kicked and sliced and punched, she spotted more of them coming to join the fun.
She thrust the claws of her left hand into the wide open mouth of a particularly large St. Bernard and as the claws exited through the back of his throat, he clamped his teeth down, trying to eat the tempting flesh right there in his mouth.
He took off half her hand.
When she managed to pull free she was missing three fingers, with only her first finger and thumb remaining.
She screamed, though in her shock she barely felt any pain.
Time to run.
With the haunting zombie moans and clicking teeth assaulting her ears, she turned to run for her life.
The ground was littered with pieces of the zombies she’d destroyed, but with a mangled hand and no one to help her, she wasn’t feeling too confident.
The pavement was a blur beneath her feet as adrenaline and her monster propelled her onward. But she wasn’t running at full speed—feeding Levi had taken that from her.
She could feel them there, right at her back. One misstep and they’d mow her down like tall grass. And no matter how immortal a girl was, if a zombie was eating her heart and munching on her brain, she was just dead.
Across the street she spotted movement. A young man stood on the edge of a porch, waving. “Here,” he yelled.
She veered off the street immediately and ran toward him. Leaping up the steps to the porch, she streaked past him and into the house.
As soon as she was inside he slammed the door shut, bolting it behind him. They listened quietly as zombies rammed themselves against the house.
She stood in the middle of a nice size living room, which contained small pieces of furniture and an enormous flat screen TV. She cradled her injured hand to her chest, her gaze on the stranger.
He had straw colored hair and shy blue eyes. He wore a pair of faded overalls, his feet stuck into boots almost big enough for her to sleep in. But she was accustomed to big men.
He smiled a little vacantly and twisted his hands together. “Hi.” The zombies continued to torpedo themselves against the exterior of the house, but he no longer seemed to notice. “My name is Benjamin David Arco. Everyone calls me George.”
She was unable to contain a groan when she glanced down at the bloody stumps where her fingers had once been. Now that there was no immediate danger, the pain roared over her. Nausea rose when she saw the tiny, bloody bones standing sharply at attention.
The fingers would regrow, and so would the claws.
They would.
“George, I need some ice and bandages. And coffee, if you’ve got it.” Coffee made everything better.
“What happened to your hand?” He walked a little closer and peered down at her, his eyes wide.
She showed him. “There are zombie Others out there. I was fighting them when one—”
He wobbled back a few steps then crashed to the floor, out cold.
She sighed. “For fuck’s sake, dude. It’s just a little blood and gore.” She guessed she’d have to go find her own damn ice.
But he’d know how the whole mess had started. Once she took care of her hand she’d get his story.
As she headed for the bathroom George moaned, then called weakly, “Lady?”
“I’m here.” She could see a bathroom at the end of the hallway. “Can you make some coffee?”
There was an open door on her right and as she started to walk by, she glanced into a small bedroom.
“Fuck me,” she whispered. She pulled a shiv with her right hand and stepped into the room.
On the bed sat a very large female zombie, holding the hand of a very little girl.
Chapter Twelve
The child’s face was slack, her brown eyes unaware, but suddenly she focused on Rune and gave a startled scream.
The zombie lurched toward Rune, teeth snapping.
Rune was so focused on the kid and the zombie she was slow to react when she heard George behind her.
He rammed her, his big body knocking the breath from her. She lost the shiv but immediately shot her claws out. Her damaged left hand screamed with agony.
“Fie,” George yelled. “Steffie!”
Rune shoved the young man away and went for the zombie when once again George grabbed her. Kid was a pain in the ass.
She snarled and turned on him, but the look in his wide eyes made her hesitate. She knew that look. It was the look a parent had for a child who was in danger.
“Wait,” he begged, holding up his hands. “Just watch.”
The little girl—Fie—had already regained control. She stared at the zombie with such concentration there was no room in her head for anything else. Her eyes were blank, unaware.
But she controlled the zombie.
Once again, the two sat on the bed, side by side, hand in hand.
“What the hell?” Rune looked at George. “Dude. Explain.”
He twisted his hands together, his face screwed into lines of remorse. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She withdrew her claws, her entire body throbbing with pain as the jagged claws scraped against her raw, bloody flesh. “You didn’t.” She gestured at the bed. “What’s going on?”
“Stefanie is my little sister. She’s special. Everyone calls her Fie.”
He was probably around nineteen, but seemed a little closer to seven, mentally. She patted his arm with her good hand, hoping he’d relax before he burst into tears. “Go on.” She stood beside him and watched the zombie, just in case it moved.
“Fie brought mother out of the graveyard,” he whispered, as though the girl didn’t already know and he didn’t want to be the one to tell her.
“I see that.” Fie had called the zombies and started the whole disaster. When the wolf alpha had asked her for help, he’d said there were two children in trouble.
Why he hadn’t told the truth she couldn’t have said. She’d been given nothing but lies the ent
ire time.
“She’s a necromancer?” she asked George. “Can you call the dead as well?”
He frowned then went silent and blank for a second, like he was trying hard to figure out her questions. “Mother died,” he said, finally. “She died and we needed her back. Fie brought back our dog when he died, so she brought back mother. They were going to take us away from each other.”
She softened. “How old are you, George?”
“Fourteen. Fie is six.”
She was small, even for a six year old. George didn’t have that problem. He was big—he took after his mother.
“Do you understand the zombie is not really your mother?” She flashed suddenly to the day she’d discovered her own mother was a vampire. Her adoptive mother. The mother she’d thought dead, the mother she’d killed…
The mother she’d turned.
She shook off those grim memories and concentrated on George and Fie.
“She is, too,” he shouted. “Fie says she is.”
“This zombie will kill your sister if it gets the chance. You have to be the big brother now, George, and help me protect her.”
The only thing Shiv Crew could do was get the children out of town, to safety, and let the military clear Rock County.
If they could get out of town.
She pulled her cell out of her pocket then realized she’d missed some calls. She was standing in a bedroom with two kids and a zombie. She was pretty sure that was a good enough excuse.
Raze had called twice. She called him back, wincing when he roared her name. “Calm down, baby. I had my phone on vibrate and didn’t hear it.”
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you, Rune. Where the hell are you?”
“I’m a few blocks from the yellow house. I fought some zombies and ended up having to run from the sons of bitches.”
“We just saw where you’d fought them.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was hoarse. “I thought you were dead.”
She looked at her hand. “I’m fine. Did Strad and Jack find our boys?”
“They found Z and Owen. Owen is okay.”
“Z?” She held her breath.
“He wouldn’t come back.”
“Owen promised he’d bring him back,” she said, like a child would.
