by Laken Cane
She was a fucking cyborg.
Less and less human.
Blowing out a tired, but not quite as painful breath, she started to drop the sheet.
The berserker still leaned against the wall, and his stare was as hot and heavy as a physical touch.
She shivered as gooseflesh dotted her sensitive skin. She clutched at the sheet, suddenly hesitant to expose herself to Strad’s probing gaze.
“What time is it?” she asked, silently cursing herself. She’d never been overly modest, and Strad Matheson had been inside her. It made no sense to be shy now.
But there it was.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Noon.”
“Only noon. It seems like weeks since this morning.”
He said nothing.
The longer she waited to drop the sheet, the harder it became.
Dammit. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Finally, she glared at the man across from her and let go of the sheet. She put her hands on her hips, glaring harder when one corner of his mouth rose in a slight smile.
“Well,” she bellowed. “Got your fill yet?”
“Never.” His voice was as soft as cotton.
Owen chose that moment to step inside the room. “Elizabeth said—”
He froze, watching her as she stood angry and naked, her stare on the berserker.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“Holy fuck,” Owen murmured.
“Out.” Strad’s voice was mild. The look in his eyes was not.
It was then she realized why she’d turned suddenly shy before the berserker. It was because he saw her. All of her. Her secrets and…
She dropped her arms to her side and unable to stop, looked at Owen.
…her desires.
“You look…” he swallowed, hard. “You look well.”
She pursed her lips to keep from grinning, but wasn’t sure she succeeded. “Get out.”
After a last, lingering look, he went.
She hurried into her clothes, looking everywhere but at the berserker. She said nothing, and breathed a sigh of relief when neither did he.
Once upon a time she’d had a rule about not fucking the men she worked with. That might have been a smart rule to keep.
She slid the last shiv into its sheath and finally, glanced at Strad. “I’m ready.”
He was smiling. A tiny smile, but a smile.
It took her breath, that smile. “What?”
He walked to her and took her by the shoulders. “Don’t worry so much.”
She started to reply but he leaned over and pressed his lips against hers.
His lips were soft. And very, very warm.
She opened her mouth to him and he slid his tongue between her lips, brushing hers with a slow, hot touch that made her forget, once again, to breathe.
But he pulled away. He stared down at her, his eyes full of promise and heat. So much fucking heat. “Tonight.”
She nodded.
Tonight.
But first…
She took a deep breath, trying to sharpen a brain that had gone dull and heavy with thoughts of sex. “Let’s go get the twins and Lex.”
Ellis waited by the exit doors with Jack, Owen, and Raze. He squeezed Raze’s arm when she and Strad walked toward them.
Raze didn’t smile—Raze rarely smiled—but there was a softness in his eyes when he looked down at Ellis.
She pulled Ellis into a quick hug, surprising him. “We’ll be back soon, baby.”
He nodded, smiling as he swiped at his eyes. “I need him, Rune.”
“We’ll make sure you get him.”
“Yes. You will. You will.”
Maybe he was trying to convince himself, but it didn’t matter. They would bring the rest of their crew back.
In her mind, there was no doubt. There was no room for doubt.
The berserker and Owen were staring at each other, a long, hard stare that finally ended in some sort of silent communication the others were not privy to.
Rune pushed through the exit doors, her mind on the battle to come. Once outside, she tried again, and again failed, to send out her claws.
But she had her blades.
Her silver was all she needed to cut out COS like the malignant growths they were.
She fished her cell out of her car. One of the men had driven it from the Moor earlier.
“I’ll ride with you,” she told Raze. “I don’t want to drive.”
The drive to Hawthorne seemed to take hours. With each mile, thoughts of what might be happening to the twins and Lex bombarded her mind.
She couldn’t shut them out, not anymore.
She punched in Jack’s number, drumming her fingers on her thigh as she waited for him to answer. “What’s the word?”
Jack had a contact in the forest. After Rune had told them she believed COS was in Hawthorne, Jack had made a quick call. She was right.
“My guy checked an hour ago. They hadn’t left the house.”
“What the fuck are they doing in there, Jack? Why are they hanging around?” Not that she wasn’t grateful. It’d have been tougher to track them if they’d left the county.
“They think you’re dead and we’re occupied with zombies. They’ve found a lot of willing humans here. Why would they want to leave?”
“Fucking Bach Horner,” she said. “He wants to own our city.”
“He thinks he already does,” Jack said, and hung up.
No matter what they did in Hawthorne that day, COS was never disappearing. Not for long. They were fucking cockroaches.
That was one reason they wanted to get rid of her. She was going to be around to fight them. Forever.
To Karin Love, Rune was her most dangerous enemy—because long after Karin was dead, Rune would still be there.
And most likely, that just pissed the bitch off.
A distant sound of sirens drew closer and louder, shrieking like banshees in the quiet afternoon and jerking her from her thoughts.
“Rune,” Raze said. “Call Rice.”
She twisted around to look out the back window. Three police cars streaked toward them. “I’m only surprised they didn’t try to stop us sooner.”
Raze pulled the truck over. Behind them Strad did the same. Jack and Owen had ridden with the berserker, and as she peered through the back glass, she willed them to be calm.
But when the cops poured from their cars, guns drawn, she had a feeling no one was going to remain calm for long.
Chapter Fifty
“Out of the vehicle,” one of them called. “Hands where we can see them.”
Rune got out of the car, phone to her ear as she waited for Rice to answer. When it went to voicemail, she quickly punched in Ellis’s number.
“Ellie, we’re surrounded by fucking River County cops. I can’t get Rice on his cell.”
“They took him in, Rune,” Ellie said. “I heard he’s been forced out as police director.”
“He’ll be okay if they don’t arrest him. He still has RISC.”
“I thought you were finally dead, Alexander,” one of the cops said, gun out and ready. “Put the phone away.”
Like a gun would stop her if she decided to kick some ass.
“Gotta go, baby. I’ll call you when I can.” She put her phone back in her pocket. “What’s going on?”
“Where are you headed?”
The cop speaking was a thirty-something redhead who’d cheered her and the crew on when they’d wiped out the zombies. Samantha. Rune couldn’t remember her last name.
Rune crossed her arms. “I’m pretty sure you already know the answer to that, officer.”
“We’ve been ordered to turn you around. Mr. Horner filed a restraining order against every member of your crew. Including you, of course.” Samantha nodded toward one of the other cops, who rushed forward to hand Rune an envelope.
Rune tapped it on her thigh, not bothering to look at it. “Horner has three of my cr
ew. We’re going in to get them.”
Samantha shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”
“I wasn’t asking permission.”
“Rune,” Strad said, stepping closer.
“Back off, big guy,” Samantha ordered, turning her gun from Rune to the berserker.
He put his hands up, trying to look unthreatening. He didn’t succeed. “Go with us, if you want. But don’t try to stop us.”
Samantha pointed her chin at the two cops standing slightly behind Strad. “Cuff him.”
“Don’t do that,” Rune warned.
Strad didn’t have his lethal silver spear—he couldn’t wear it while driving. But it didn’t matter. Before anyone could blink, he had silver shivs in both hands. “You’ll want to get the fuck out of here,” he said, “before you get hurt.”
“Shoot him,” Samantha yelled, at the exact moment she turned her gun back to Rune and pulled the trigger.
There were eight cops, and all eight were armed.
But against the crew, they had no chance. They had to know that.
She’d seen the spark of rabid fanaticism deep in the cops’ eyes, and knew exactly what the crew was facing.
These cops belonged to Karin Love. They belonged to the Church of Slayers. To the bastards hiding in the house in Hawthorne, torturing Lex and the twins.
And not one of them was thinking logically. They simply wanted to bag the crew for their church.
Rune was sure fucking Horner was secure in his belief that the city would protect him.
She’d lost her claws, her fangs, and now, she realized, her speed. She was just another crew member fighting the bad guys.
But that was enough.
They’d been expecting the cops to shoot them, so they were prepared.
“Don’t kill them,” Rune yelled. She knocked the gun out of Samantha’s hand then punched her in the temple—a blow extra hard because her fist was weighted with the heavy silver of a shiv.
Samantha went down like a rock.
Her men already had the other cops under control. Guns were on the ground, and the policemen stood silent and blank faced with their hands in the air.
Before the blast, Rune would have mowed most of the cops down before they’d so much as moved. She had a quick flash of fear. She wasn’t going to be worth shit when it came to fighting COS.
“Cuff them all,” Rune said, silently cursing the quiver in her voice. “Take their keys and guns and lock the sons of bitches in the backseats of their cars. That’ll buy us some time.” She leaned over Samantha, who was still on the ground, groggily caressing her head. “Now, we’re going in to get our crew.”
Samantha spit at her. “Fucking monster. Your fucking traitor friends are already dead.” She smiled a cold, cold smile. “Or wishing they were.”
It took them ten minutes to clean up the area and secure the cops. Rune called Ellie back. “Any news on Rice?”
“No. What happened there?”
“A little run-in with some COS supporters. We handled it.”
“Rune, I have a bad feeling. Please hurry.”
“I will.”
And once more, they were on the road to Hawthorne. If nothing more happened to delay them, they’d be near the house within the next fifteen minutes.
Raze waved Strad around. “Take the lead. You know the area better than I do.”
“I don’t have my speed,” she told Raze, just needing to say the words. “Or my strength. I can’t do much.”
“Keep your confidence, Rune. That’s the one thing you can’t let yourself lose.”
“I took out one fucking cop. You guys…”
“You’re one of the best fighters I’ve ever known. Speed and claws or not.” He winked at her. “You just got spoiled by all that vampire shit.”
She wanted to believe it. Wanted it badly. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t know.”
“None of the crew has those abilities. That doesn’t make us ordinary, does it?”
She shook her head, smiling. “No.”
Satisfied, he reached over to pat her leg. “Damn right.” He glanced at her face, her body. “You look almost healed from the blast. Is that because of the witch’s power, or all you?”
She shrugged. “Either that or I’m…” She closed her mouth, unsure how to finish that sentence. Invincible?
“Raze.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you ever tell Lex how you feel about her?”
He cleared his throat. “Nah. Talk about beauty and the beast. I’m not right for her.”
Rune lifted an eyebrow. “There’s no one more right for her. After we get her back, you should…” She gestured. “You know. Take her out.”
Again, he cleared his throat. After a moment, he said, gruffly, “We’ll see.”
She stared out the side window and smiled.
But soon, her smile fell away and worry crowded her mind.
Lex and the twins had been in the sadistic hands of COS for too long.
The crew would bring them back.
She just hoped they didn’t have to bring them back in pieces.
Chapter Fifty-One
They parked nearly half a mile from the house, hoping to sneak in take COS by surprise. Unlikely, as Bach would have been keeping close tabs, but worth a shot.
If not for the fight that had scarred Ellie and cost Jack his eye, Hawthorne Forest would have held an attraction for Rune. She had a feeling the bad memories associated with it were about to get worse.
They stayed off the paved road, walking instead through the deeply wooded areas, slipping from tree to tree.
She had both guns out and ready, and tried not to think about the fact that she wasn’t as good. Ellie might think she was less human, but right now she was human weak and human slow.
“You okay?” Owen asked, dropping into place beside her.
“Yes.”
She kept her eyes darting, her ears tuned for any sounds. If she got her crew killed because her fucking monster was pissed or hiding or dead, she would never be able to get past it.
“Just be careful,” she said, said it to them all. “Please.”
“There it is.” Strad’s voice was barely above a whisper. He pointed. “Beyond those trees.”
Her heart thudded painfully against her ribs. It was time.
As they began to walk closer, Rune heard the sound of a car engine start up. She peered around the trees and the house rose like a dream out of the forest floor, huge even from the distance, white and tall and somehow majestic.
A long, shadowed porch extended across the front, partly hidden from her view by a truck that had stopped mere inches from the house.
An unpaved lane led up to the house, stopping at a yard filled with automobiles. There were five trucks, three small cars, and two SUVs. A motorcycle lay on its side in the dirt, as though its driver had been in one hell of a hurry when he’d jumped off it.
The house was huge, but it would have to have been, to hold all those humans. Three floors, a basement, an attic…
She narrowed her eyes, sure she saw movement at one of the third floor windows. “I think he’s posted guards on the third floor. See the windows?”
They nodded. “Probably rifles,” Jack murmured. “We should walk around. The back might not be as guarded.”
“Jack, you and Owen go around, take the back.”
The SUV that had started up made a sharp turn and sped down the lane to the main road.
“Those men,” Strad said, “will see our trucks. They’ll alert the house.”
She wished for darkness, but darkness wouldn’t come for another few hours. She nodded. “Let’s move.”
Strad glanced down at her, his face softening. “You’re Rune Alexander. Don’t forget that.”
“Yeah,” Jack said, smiling. “You’re fucking amazing with silver. You’re not our captain because you’re weak, sweet thing.”
For a second she couldn’t breathe, and
they were all silent as Z’s pet name for her echoed through their memories. She wanted to fall to the ground and cry and puke like a fucking sissy, but she let the pain of Z slip away and she stiffened her spine.
Yeah, she was afraid. She was terrified. But that came with the job, and she wasn’t letting her monster throw a hissy and get her crew killed. Fuck him.
She was good enough without the bastard.
But God, did she miss him.
Somewhere inside the house was Lex, blind and broken, wondering if the crew was ever coming. Surely, she wondered that.
And the twins.
Rune shuddered. The beautiful twins.
“Go,” she told Jack.
He and Owen slipped away.
Just like that, they disappeared through the trees.
She turned her attention to the house. “Ready, guys?”
Strad and Raze nodded and started forward.
“Wait,” she said.
They stopped and turned back to look at her questioningly.
“I always take point,” she said.
It was hard for them to do—she saw it in their hesitation, in the quick glance they shot each other, but then they stepped aside to let her by.
She couldn’t get angry. Once she would have, but now, she couldn’t very well blame them for doubting her. She doubted herself.
She was a chaotic mess of magic and mundane, human and Other, and she had no idea what the hell was going on inside her.
But she figured she was still immortal, and she was still captain of Shiv Crew. She would take point.
When they got closer, they stopped to take stock. The woods were about to end, and in moments she and her crew would step out from the cover of trees and be exposed to the enemy. To COS.
The place was bustling with quiet activity. Men jogged from the house to outbuildings. She heard the muted sound of voices, and a sudden, discordant laugh. Someone coughed.
“They’re expecting us,” she said. She clenched her guns and longed for the weight of her silver shivs—but these were humans. She’d need guns, at least at first.
“We can’t sneak in,” Strad said. “We’re going to have to go in making some noise.”
She froze in mid-nod when Raze pointed his gun and whispered, “Twins.”
Four men with rifles strapped to their backs hurried the twins down the porch steps. The boys’ hands were cuffed behind them but their feet were unfettered.
