by Laken Cane
The screams came again, closer together and more desperate, and she pushed everything from her mind but getting those screams to stop.
Fucking Others.
Time was running out for the tortured human. With the two men beside her, Rune loped as silently as possible through the shadows, holding tightly to the lethal guns.
Three people, six guns, and two dozen shivs against eight Others. Those were not good odds for her crew, but they had the element of surprise on their side.
They were spotted—or more likely scented—seconds later, and the Others scattered. From the glimpses Rune got of their clothing she assumed they were vampires. Black everywhere. Hair, clothing, everything was black except for the telltale pale skin that gleamed almost green in the moonlight.
Rune and Jack would kill anything living—or dead—that moved. They were the best shooters in the group and rarely missed anything. Z was the best retriever Rune had ever used. He would secure the victim while Rune and Jack covered him. No matter what else was going on, if there was a victim, Z would get him or her out.
She only hired the best.
But those vampires weren’t interested in fighting. They wanted only to escape, which was strange for rogue vampires. Surely they were rogue. The Spiritgrove vampires answered to master vampire Nicolas Llodra—and only rogue vampires would dare attack a human. Unless…
Unless they had his permission. Not likely. Llodra had been known to deliver his vampires to Spiritgrove Law Enforcement himself if they committed a crime. He, like most vampire masters, wanted nothing more than to live in the shadows and avoid human persecution.
One of the vampires was uncharacteristically slow. Rune pulled an eight-inch shiv from a sheath on her side and sent it flying through the air to find him.
He screamed as the silver pierced his body, and then fell to the ground. He must have been a new vampire. Older ones were less vocal and much less clumsy.
A vampire wouldn’t die unless she got him through the heart and then took his head, but she didn’t want to kill him. She’d need at least one of them for questioning.
For good measure and because one couldn’t be careful enough when it came to the vampires, she aimed her gun and shattered one of his legs as well.
He’d heal, the son of a bitch, but because he was shot up with silver he’d heal almost human slow.
She heard a scream as one of her men managed to shoot a fleeing vampire, heard it with grim satisfaction.
Never panic was the first rule of Shiv Crew. That rule had saved their lives more than once.
Then suddenly, it was over.
For a long moment there were no sounds.
Rune kicked a rock. All the vampires had escaped but one. “Fuckers.” She glanced over to where Z tended the human, a girl around nineteen or twenty years old, who sobbed quietly into Z’s chest.
The one vampire she’d managed to catch lay still as death on the ground, his arm and leg destroyed. “Silver the undead fuck, Jack. I’ll call this in.”
Jack pulled heavy silver wire from his pocket and wrapped it around the body of the vampire, though it wasn’t really necessary. With silver drifting through his bloodstream, he wasn’t going anywhere.
The skin hissed when the wire touched it, and the scent of cooking vampire meat drifted through the air. She could only imagine how the silver must be burning him on the inside.
She shrugged away the uneasiness that plagued her whenever she had to subdue an Other in such a painful way. They brought it on themselves.
The paramedics would transport the girl to the hospital, and in a couple of days, Spiritgrove law enforcement and RISC would question her. Rune would sit in with RISC and if need be, ask a few questions of her own…if Jeremy would allow it.
“They were expecting us,” Jack said.
But that doesn’t make sense.
Yeah, they may simply have been evil rogues out to stir up some trouble, but she wasn’t feeling it. Rogues wouldn’t have run—they would have fought like the crazy desperadoes they were.
She called the station and the paramedics, and then strode to Z and the girl. A shiver of unease ran down her spine. It didn’t make sense, and she didn’t like it when things didn’t make sense.
“Z.”
At her voice, he released the girl and stood, flinching when she gave a little scream and launched herself at him. She hugged his legs and trembled, her breathing harsh.
“She’s in shock, Rune. Did you call it in?”
“Yeah.”
“ETA?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
He shot a worried look down at the girl. “She’s in a bad way. Fifteen minutes is a fucking eternity. Maybe we should drive her to town.”
She knelt down to look at the girl. Women were Z’s biggest weakness. He’d been known to lose his easygoing attitude and go ape shit when a female was hurt. It was one of his best qualities and one of his biggest flaws.
“I need a couple of minutes with her. See what you can find in the clothes of the vamp and search the ground before RISC gets here.” It was something Shiv Crew always did. She wasn’t guaranteed any information from the law enforcement agencies that had her beneath their thumbs, so she did as much of her own investigating as possible before they took it out of her hands. Bastards.
“She’s too injured. You shouldn’t—”
She looked at him. That was all, just looked at him.
He ran his hands through his gorgeous dirty-blond hair. “Fuck, Rune.” But he went without another word.
The girl huddled on the ground. Her sobs had dwindled and finally stopped. A long fall of dark hair hid her face, and she didn’t even flinch when Rune knelt before her.
Rune pushed the girl’s hair out of her face. “I’m going to shine a light so I can see you. I want to see how you’re doing. Okay?”
She fished a small flashlight from her pocket and gave an experimental flash to the ground before shining it over the victim. “Shit.”
“Thirsty,” the girl said.
“I know, baby. The paramedics will be here soon and they’ll take care of you.” The girl had been beaten savagely. Her face was swollen and seeping blood. Her throat was torn from careless fangs, her chest covered with cuts and bruises. “Can you tell me your name?”
The victim looked around, her eyes dazed. “I’m thirsty.”
Jack walked up to stand behind her. “Anything?”
Rune shrugged off her coat and after taking a couple of knives from the pockets and slipping them surreptitiously to him, put the jacket around the girl’s bare shoulders. It was November, and her attackers had stripped her naked.
Her skin was cold and clammy, and the few unmarked parts of her were too pale. She listed suddenly to the side and vomited.
“Fucking monsters,” Rune muttered.
“She able to give you a name?”
“No.” She tilted her head at the distant sound of sirens. “See if Z needs help. They’ll be here in a couple minutes.”
He nodded and walked away, leaving her alone with the abused girl. She’d stopped heaving but was swaying precariously on the hard ground, her eyes unfocused.
Too bad my own abuse doesn’t outrage me as much as a stranger’s does.
But that was totally different.
“Sweetheart, I’m going to help you lie down,” Rune said.
Getting the feet up and the head down was about all she could do. She had enough trouble packing around two guns and her shivs. There was no room for a first aid kit.
The girl lay with her eyes closed, her breathing fast and shallow. Her life was never going to be the same because the monsters had decided it was a good idea to fuck with her.
Z and Jack gathered at her back.
“Nothing,” Jack said.
She nodded, and silently, they waited. The sirens stopped, and she handed Z her flashlight.
He waved it in the air to show the arrivals where they waited, and the sounds of slamming
doors, softly humming engines, and low voices reached them.
Suddenly the girl spoke, her words thick. “It’s Preston. He’s killing the other…” She quieted, taking on the stillness of an unconscious person.
“Did she say Preston?”
Rune nodded. “That’s what she said, Z. We have a name.”
“But who the fuck is Preston?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know any. We’ll check the listings.”
“Are we telling RISC?”
She shrugged and started to speak, but a smooth, very familiar voice interrupted her.
“Are we telling RISC what,” Jeremy asked, “and does that question mean you’re in the habit of keeping things from me?”
The fucking cavalry had arrived.
---
Enjoy chapter one of Shiv Crew? You can buy it for $0.99 or read it free in Kindle Unlimited by CLICKING HERE.
You can find all of the books in the Rune Alexander series HERE.
About Laken Cane
The coffee addicted urban fantasy/paranormal and horror writer Laken Cane lives in Southern Ohio with her genius son, two Yorkies named Daphnis and Lexi, and one Golden named Chloe who rules them all.
Places you can find Laken:
Website--www.lakencane.com
FB Author Page--https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLakenCane
FB Waifwater Page—https://www.facebook.com/Waifwater/
Facebook--www.facebook.com/laken.cane.3
Instagram--http://www.instagram.com/lakencane
Twitter--www.twitter.com/lakencane
Goodreads--www.goodreads.com/lakencane
