by Laken Cane
She drove her claws through a zombie’s brain and with her other hand, freed the last prisoner. Then the room was empty but for blood and rot and Rune.
She heard the soldiers converging upon the building as she ran down the long hall and out the back, following the Others she’d freed.
There were more buildings, and maybe there were more captive Others inside them. But she couldn’t allow herself to get caught by the military.
That wouldn’t help anybody.
She passed a huge, crudely built cage, set on a platform and wrapped in silver-laced screen. She knew immediately it’d been used for Otherfights.
Fucking Camp. Fucking humans.
She ran to the woods at the back of the compound, pacing herself to stay behind the Others. She herded them into the deep woods, where everyone split up at once. There were no words, just terrorized, injured people hoping like hell they could find a safe place to exist.
It was there in the woods, as she closed her eyes and hid her face against the rough bark of a tree, that she remembered her cell.
She ripped it from her tattered pocket, staring in disbelief when she realized it was dead. “Fuck!”
The crew might have gotten out before the military came in, but where was Denim?
She slid the useless phone back into her pocket and wrapped her arms around herself. She was cold. Her mind wanted to shut down and take a break from all it had witnessed.
But she didn’t remember a time when she wasn’t cold. Or hurt. Or so alone she wanted to burst into tears like a fucking girl.
With dry leaves and forest floor debris crunching under her boots, she began to walk. She was going home.
Overhead, helicopters swooped, and she flinched each time one’s light grazed the area near her.
But finally, the sounds of engines and machine gunfire and curses began to fade as she left the zombies to the military.
The woods were vast and empty, filled with nothing but bare, shivering trees. The moon shone brightly down on the chaotic night, lighting her way.
Her right arm continued to drip blood, slow to heal from the witch’s desperate scratches. The scent would most likely attract any zombies in the area.
She almost hoped it would. The woods were too dead.
She came upon a small, old graveyard. Even here, the earth was churned and disturbed where ancient dead had climbed free.
George…she’d have to explain to Fie’s big brother that she’d lost the girl—if he came out of his stupor, or whatever it was.
He’d be devastated. And alone.
And that just sucked.
“Your Highness.”
She walked right by him before she realized he wasn’t a mirage. He was as real as she was, and he was standing in the middle of the woods talking to her.
Gunnar the Ghoul.
She stopped and stared, finally, still disbelieving. “You can’t leave Wormwood.”
He gestured at the ground. “I can appear in any graveyard.”
“You never told me,” she murmured. She reached out, ignoring the way he cringed as she touched him.
She understood. She did the same thing when someone wanted to touch her—unless it was done in anger or with the intent to hurt her. That, she didn’t recoil from.
He was real. Gunnar the Ghoul was there in those strange, too quiet woods, and he was as familiar to her as her own face.
“I do not volunteer information about myself,” he said.
They stared at each other for a long moment. She kept her hand on his arm, afraid he would disappear if she let go of him. “I was alone,” she said, for no reason.
His sharp-featured face softened. Or maybe it was only a trick of the moonlight. “You are never alone, Your Desolateness.”
“How did you do this?” At last, she let go of him. He didn’t disappear.
“As I said. I can…materialize in any graveyard.”
She sighed. “It’s good to see you, baby. You have something to tell me?”
He nodded, and his long black hair slid over his bony shoulder. “But you will not like it.”
Yeah. She hadn’t really figured she would. “I have no Baby Ruth candy bars. You’re not going to like that. But we deal with our little disappointments and move on, don’t we?” Maybe if she kept talking, she’d never find out what Gunnar had to tell her.
“It’s about Llodra,” he said, his face carefully blank. “As you know, RISC freed him.”
“No.” Her voice was hoarse. “I freed him. What did he do, Gunnar?”
“He fed in a frenzy of madness before he left the—”
“No. No.”
“—building. I’m sorry, Your Horror. He slaughtered your people.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rune had fled Gunnar and his bad news before he could tell her what else he’d wanted to tell her. He’d held up a finger and said “Wait, Rune,” as if she would. As if she could.
She barely remembered the run back to River County.
She’d left Rock County and its zombies and machine guns and had sprinted through the night like a shadow. Like a master vampire.
Sheer hatred pushed her on, gave her the wings she needed. And for what? They were dead. They were all dead.
Fuck me.
The RISC parking lot was alive with cops and the media and angry, grieving, terrified people.
Once again, she’d made a choice, and it had been the wrong one.
Daylight came.
The RISC building was a slaughterhouse.
She’d slipped inside and when a cop had tried to stop her, she’d looked at him. Just once, silently. Recognition had lit his eyes and he’d backed away and left her alone.
The walls were splashed with blood, the floors slippery with gore. Dark smears where Llodra had fed and then flung the bodies away.
All dead.
The bodies were gone but the spirit of horror lingered. She could feel it in the heavy air. Smell it in the coppery, overpowering stench of blood and vomit and shit.
What have I done?
She needed her crew.
She leaned against a wall and put her fists to her eyes, trying to block out the sights of murder and pain. It wasn’t possible.
Elizabeth. God, Elizabeth. Don’t be dead.
“Rune!”
She felt them coming, the two she’d made, and realized she’d unintentionally called to them in her need. I should have done it sooner.
Levi, his eyes jubilant and grateful, followed reluctantly by Z, who could not help himself. She needed him. He had to come.
Levi pulled her away from the wall and into his arms. “God, Rune. God,” he kept repeating.
“Hi baby.”
His arms tightened. She would have been forced to hurt him if she’d wanted to withdraw.
“I told them you were alive,” he said, finally letting her out of his embrace. He smiled, a little embarrassed as he blinked away a tear. “I’m not sure they believed me.”
“Where’s George? How is he?”
He shook his head. “Still out of it. He’s in the hospital.”
Z stared at the wall, his arms crossed, and refused to meet her gaze. “Z.” She heard the plea in her voice and winced, but there it was.
He looked at her then, his lip curling. “What? What, Rune? Do you want me to kneel down and kiss your boots?” He gestured, his smile mocking, his eyes full of grief and rage. “Say the words. I must obey.”
Levi shoved him. “Shut the fuck up, motherfucker. She saved your life. She didn’t set out to make you a fucking slave.”
Rune rubbed her eyes. “Listen to me, both of you.”
Immediately they stilled and stared at her.
Shit.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I made you…” She motioned helplessly. “But I’m not sorry you’re standing here with me, alive.” She looked at Z. “So you deal with it, Zeveriah Kader. When everything calms down, we’ll figure shit out. But right now, I need you
to be Shiv Crew. I need you to—” Fuck if her voice didn’t break. “I need you to be my Z.”
He spoke as though every word were a splinter stabbing his throat. “I don’t know how to be the man I was. But I must obey.” He clenched his fists. “You should have let me die. I can’t forgive you for forcing me back. For changing my fate. It was mine, not yours. I won’t forgive you for that.”
“I couldn’t let you die.”
He grimaced. “I was dead, Rune. I was already fucking dead.”
Later, she would give in to the need to feel sorry for herself. She closed her eyes in a long, slow blink, then shook off the guilt and did not reply. He was right. “Levi. Where are the others?” She gestured at the blood decorating the floors and wall. “Who…who did Llodra kill?” She couldn’t come right out and ask if Elizabeth was dead. She couldn’t.
He took her arm and urged her down the hall.
Z followed behind them, and for the first time since she’d known him Rune felt a little thrill of fear with him at her back.
“Almost everyone in the building was killed,” Levi said. “A few of them lived but are in pretty terrible shape. Jack, Ellie, and Raze are in the break room.”
“The rest of the crew?” Then finally, she forced out the words. She had to. “Elizabeth?”
“She’s in the hospital,” he said.
She stopped and grabbed his arm. “She lived?”
He nodded, but his face was grim. “So far. But…”
“It’s enough. She’s alive.” She put a fist to her mouth and pushed down the cries that wanted to escape. She hadn’t killed Elizabeth.
Not yet. They continued walking.
“Owen and Lex are with her,” he said.
His eyes were too sad for her to look into. She watched her feet instead.
“You didn’t find Denim,” she stated.
“No.” He shuddered.
“I’m going back, Levi. I have to find Llodra and Marta. And I will find your brother. I swear it.”
He nodded, but looked away. “Strad wouldn’t come back with us, Rune. He’s patrolling the borders of Rock County, waiting for you.”
She thought her heart would explode with the effort it took her to control her emotions. “Give me your cell.”
Strad answered on the first ring, his voice tight when he spat out one agonized sentence. “Did you hear from her?”
She smiled, even though a quick sob managed to escape her control. “It is her, Berserker.”
His silence hurt her ears, it was so heavy. Finally, “Rune.”
She nodded. She couldn’t speak, not then.
He understood. “You’re in River County?”
His voice was shaky and she knew it was because he was running. Running back to his truck. Running to her. “Yes,” she whispered, cursing the changes in her, the vulnerability, the fucking need. “Hurry, Strad.”
“I’m on my way, sweetheart.”
Wordlessly, she handed Levi back his phone.
At last she stood in the break room doorway. Jack, Raze, and Ellie sat at one of the tables, huddled in a little circle of grief and rage, staring quietly down into the black depths of cold coffee.
“Somebody grab me a cup,” she said.
Ellis yelled something unintelligible and climbed across the table, throwing himself against her so hard she would have been knocked into the hall had Z not been at her back to catch her.
It was reflex—he just as quickly pushed her away.
But she let it go and stood still for Ellie’s hug, winking at Jack who stared at her somberly as he waited for his turn.
“You look like hell,” Raze said, and dragged Ellis off her. Raze wasn’t the patient sort. He yanked her into the air and held her against his chest in a bone crushing hug. “You look like fucking hell.”
Rune smiled against his warm neck. “Smooth talker. It’s no wonder you have such a way with the ladies.”
Her crew laughed, and it was good. The darkness had been nearly unbearable.
At last she gave Jack a quick hug, then stepped away and accepted the coffee Ellis handed her. “I lost Fie.” She told them everything that had happened with the witch, Llodra, and the child. “Tell me exactly what happened here.”
They did. Twenty seven RISC employees had been attacked. Four of them were alive—though it was doubtful they’d remain that way.
Elizabeth and four guards had gone to release Llodra. The cameras showed him waiting at the door, already aware they were coming.
He attacked Elizabeth first, which might have been what saved her. The guards had started to pull guns from their holsters, and he had turned his attention from her to them.
Then others came…the ones who had locked themselves inside their rooms had been pulled screaming into the halls where he’d savagely fed and then flung their drained bodies against the wall.
The entire slaughter had last only a few minutes, then Llodra was gone. He had gone to Rune, had exchanged blood with her…
And now he was gone.
But not for long. She’d find him.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she murmured. “Why would he kill these people?”
“Because he’s mad,” Raze said. “And he’s a killer.”
“Yeah. I guess.” She swallowed half her coffee. “He said…” How could she say it so it wouldn’t sound ridiculous? “I have a dad. Llodra force fed me blood he’d supposedly carried from my father to protect me from the witch.” Yeah. It sounded ridiculous. She took another gulp of coffee, avoiding their stares. “Not that I believe it.”
Right.
Ellis took pity on her. “Why would he do something to protect you if he’s such a coldblooded killer?”
“Exactly,” she said.
“Rune.” Jack’s voice was gentle. “We have him on camera killing our people.”
“No, I know. I know. And we’ll make sure he pays for that. It just doesn’t make sense, that’s all.”
“And you don’t like it when things don’t make sense,” Lex said.
“Lex!” Rune turned and grinned at the blind Other. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” Lex walked unerringly to Rune, shot a hand out and wrapped her fingers around Rune’s wrist. “How are you?”
Rune gently extracted her wrist. “I’m okay. Where’s Owen?”
“Still at the hospital with Elizabeth. I called a cab. I felt you were near.” Lex could feed her addiction simply by being close to Rune. Feed, as she put it, from Rune’s energy. She didn’t have to have her blood.
But Rune was pretty sure the blood would have been much, much better.
“Is Elizabeth…?”
Lex shook her head. “She hasn’t regained consciousness.”
“Rune.” Levi squeezed her shoulder. “Let me go now. I need to search for my brother.”
“Not alone,” Lex said, her dancing eyes fierce. “I’m going with you.”
“As soon as we get things sorted out here,” Rune said, “we’re all going to search for Denim.” She brushed a hand over her face. “We have to avoid the soldiers.”
“They’re going to bomb Rock County,” Raze said. “We can’t go back in.”
“You know that for sure?”
He shrugged. “That’s what I heard.”
She straightened her spine. “Then I go back alone.”
“We left you there once,” Jack said. “We won’t do it again.”
“You can’t go. I’ll be okay.”
“He’s right,” Raze said. “We’re not leaving you there alone again.”
“I can’t risk your lives,” she said, her voice barely loud enough for them to hear. “Don’t make me force you.”
“You’re the boss,” Jack said. “You can order us to stay behind and sit on our asses while you go in and risk your life.”
“But this time,” Raze said. “We won’t listen to you. When you go back, we go back.”
She clenched her fists so hard her nails cut into
her palms. She clenched harder. “Bombs might not kill me, dude. But they’ll kill you.”
“Denim is in there,” Levi said. “You have to let me go find him.”
She was glad Levi seemed to be getting back to normal. Before he’d been bitten, he wouldn’t have stopped searching for Denim in the first place. Now, he did what she told him to do—but he was starting to argue. “We’re going to find Denim. No matter what. And we’ll find Llodra and Marta.” She took a deep breath. “We—”
But she cut off her words when Raze’s cell began to ring.
They all watched him with dread as he answered. “Yeah?” He listened for a second, his eyes widening.
“What, Raze?” Rune asked. “What is it?”
He smiled slightly. It was maybe the second time she’d ever seen him smile.
“That was Strad,” he told them. “And he has Denim. He’s unhurt.”
“God,” Rune said, and let the relief pour over her. Ellis grabbed Levi and whispered words she couldn’t understand, over and over.
Then, he left Levi and flung his arms around her. “You see? It’s all going to be fine. Right, Rune?”
“Yes.” She kissed his cheek. “It will.”
“And,” Raze said, then waited for them all to pay attention.
“What?” Rune asked. Please don’t be bad news.
It wasn’t.
“Denim found the little girl. She’s hurt, but she’s alive.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The relief was overwhelming.
She hadn’t realized exactly how wound up and worried she’d been until Strad called. She really hadn’t believed Denim or Fie were alive.
With that relief came utter exhaustion. It had been a hard couple of days, and she was running on fumes. Being so fatigued and depleted was dangerous for her.
“I’m going to go eat and sleep,” she said, after Lex, Levi, and Raze agreed to get Fie settled in at the hospital. They’d make sure she was next to George.
Rune had phoned one of the only women she’d trust with Fie—a woman named Lane who seemed like the grandmotherly type until you saw the steel beneath her smile. She’d been with River County Children Services for fifteen years, and Rune didn’t know anyone who was better suited to see to Fie and George. “Tell them…”
