by Laken Cane
“And who is he?” Denim asked.
“He is Eugene,” Gavin said. “And he is the Annex.”
“And?” Rune asked, impatient. “What did he do to you?”
“He kill-switched us,” he said, and there was the anger. The fury. It swirled through his eyes and caressed every syllable he spoke. His stare was not dark or blank or cold. “He owns us now.”
Rune’s sharply indrawn breath was loud in the sudden stillness. “You’re lying.” Because if he were telling the truth, then Eugene had been lying to them all. Worse than that, he was no better than Lee Crane.
“No,” Gavin said. “We are not lying. He implanted us, and he will perfect this technology. Don’t think he won’t use it on you and your crew, if he needs to.”
Bellamy stared at her. “He will use it on your baby. He will use it on any person or Other he wants to control. Scoff if you want, but this is your warning.”
Rune could feel herself pale. Her legs began to shake, and she knew, she knew they were telling the truth. She didn’t want to believe it, but she did. “Eugene isn’t a monster,” she murmured. “He can’t be.”
“Well, what do you know,” Bellamy snapped. “The cold, hard Rune Alexander is all naïve and shit.”
“He will use it on your baby.”
“Where did he put it?” Rune asked, finally. Her heart beat too slowly. Each beat made her chest jerk, thumping heavily against her ribs like a drum of doom and dread. She pushed her fist against her old stake scars. “Show me.”
Bellamy turned around and lifted her hair. “See the wound? Shifting may heal it, but we’re not yet strong enough to shift. The kill switch is hugging our brains.”
"Why doesn't your body reject it?" Levi asked, his voice hoarse.
"We don't know," she whispered. "We just don't know."
Rune’s own body rejected foreign material—but her heart didn’t. If a kill switch were inserted into her heart, would she be caught as the gargoyles were caught?
Yeah. She probably would.
“What happens if you get someone to take it out?” Rune asked.
Bellamy dropped her hair. “Manipulation of the device will detonate it. I’m half afraid to comb my hair.” She offered a smile, but it was full of truth and tears. “Fucking humans,” she whispered.
“It’s not the threat of death,” Gavin said.
“No,” Bellamy agreed. “Death will be a blessing.”
“Will be?” Denim asked.
“If the switches can’t be removed, we will take our own lives,” she answered. “It’s the only way we can be free.” She put her stare back on Rune. “We’d like to ask your help with that.”
Gavin looked at Rune. “When it was first inserted, the…” He swallowed and looked away as rage darkened his eyes once again. “The handlers had to pair it with their controls. Their remotes. They manipulated us for hours.”
“In what way?” Rune cleared her throat, thinking she’d have to repeat her whispered words, but he heard her.
“They made us blind,” he answered. “They created headaches so severe that all we could do was curl upon the floor in our own vomit and hope to die.”
“They paralyzed me,” Bellamy said, her eyes dull with remembered pain. “No matter what they did to me, I could not move. And they did a lot to me.”
“They created a sexual need inside me,” Gavin said, “so completely unbearable that I would have raped to death any person or animal I could have reached.”
Bellamy squeezed his arm. “They did many, many things, Rune Alexander. We have paid a thousand times over for harming your pregnancy. And now we need your help.”
Rune nodded. The pain inside her heart was unbearable. She could only imagine how the gargoyles felt. Eugene’s betrayal was too big for her to process. The horror of the kill switch had not ended with Lee Crane’s capture. It’d only gotten worse.
And Eugene had control of the doctor. Rune had handed Jill—Dr. Johns—over to him. She’d made it easy for him to seize control of the kill switch technology. And he was using it against his own.
“I will not stop until I find someone to take the kill switches out of your brains. I swear it.”
The twins, as one, stepped to her side. “We swear it,” they echoed.
“And we will destroy the technology,” Rune promised. “We will find it, and we will destroy it.”
Kader.
Kader could be kill-switched.
So could little Reign.
And just that quickly, the Annex became the enemy.
Eugene became the enemy.
Chapter Twenty-One
“We would help you with your current problem,” Gavin said, “if we could. But we are not strong enough yet.”
“Once we’re able to shift,” Bellamy said, “we’ll begin to heal. It will take time for our bodies to sort this out.” She sat down on the couch and picked up her mug. “Show her what’s in the trunk of the car, Gavin.”
Rune and the twins looked at each other. “Trunk?” Rune said. “This day just keeps getting better.”
Ellis walked back into the living room. “Aly is taking care of Kader. I’ll put on some fresh coffee and make breakfast.”
The last thing she wanted was food. “Ellie—”
“You need to eat,” he said, severely.
Gavin walked toward the door. “Come with me.”
He led them to his car, and after he lifted the trunk lid they all stared down into the dark depths at the bound and gagged woman who lay there.
Gavin Delaney had abducted Logan Rees.
Rune groaned, then blew out a long breath and glared at the sky, trying to find some sort of calm so she could deal with the latest round of crazy shit.
“Is she dead?” Levi asked.
“No,” Rune told him. “I can hear her breathing.” She looked at Gavin. “What the hell were you thinking?”
He kept his face emotionless. “There are things we need to know. She can tell us.”
“That’s just…stupid,” Denim said. “Really, really stupid.”
Rune nodded, slowly. “You can’t do shit like this with a kill switch inside you. They’ll make you suffer.”
“How careful were you when you took her?” Levi asked Gavin.
Rune answered before the gargoyle could. “Doesn’t matter how careful he was. They’ll know. And if they don’t, they’ll figure it out. There aren’t many secrets in the Annex.”
Logan opened her eyes and stared at Gavin. Her eyes were full of rage and a healthy dose of fear, but there was something else in their depths that Rune had no problem recognizing.
She glanced at the gargoyle. “You were fucking her.”
He said nothing.
“You work fast, Delaney.”
“When I have to,” he answered. “She can help us.”
“You don’t know a lot about women, do you?” Rune asked.
“More than you might think,” Gavin replied, and gave them a ghost of a smile. “Let’s get her inside. Your neighbors will start to wonder why we’re staring into the trunk of my car.”
Rune shrugged. “This is the Moor. My neighbors have bodies in their own trunks. They’re not going to care about ours.”
Gavin leaned forward, dragged Logan from the trunk, then draped her over his shoulder.
She didn’t make a sound, and she didn’t struggle, but above the duct tape, her eyes promised retribution.
Rune sighed.
“Put her on the couch,” she told Gavin, once they were inside.
Ellis walked in and stood beside Levi, his eyes wide. Levi put his arm around him and started to turn him toward the kitchen. “I could use some breakfast, El.”
But Ellis refused to budge. “Logan is one of us, whether we like her or not. I won’t see her tortured.” He glared at Gavin. “Put her down.”
Gavin plopped her down, not gently but not roughly, either. He straightened and glanced around at them all, then his gaze lingered on
Ellis. “You should go for a drive.”
Ellis lifted his chin. “I’m not a child. I’ve seen a lot of bad things. Haven’t I, Rune?”
“Yeah, you have,” Rune agreed.
“Still,” Gavin insisted, mildly. “Go for a drive.”
Ellis curled his hands into fists. “I’m not going anywhere, and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop ordering me around. I can help.”
Gavin lifted an eyebrow. “How, exactly, can you help?”
“For one, I can explain to you that there is no need to torture the truth from this woman. Take the tape off her mouth and ask your questions.”
Gavin smiled. “And if she declines to answer?”
“She won’t,” Ellis said, softly, looking at Logan.
“How do you know?” Rune asked him, curious.
“Because she doesn’t want to be tortured. I don’t care for her—trying to keep me from Kader and all—but I recognize an intelligent woman when I see one.”
He and Logan stared at each other for a long, long moment, then Logan nodded.
“I’ll be damned,” Levi murmured, shooting Ellis a look of admiration. “Take off the tape, Delaney.”
“Ellis keeps us all from becoming wild beasts,” Rune told the gargoyles.
Gavin shrugged, leaned over, and ripped the tape from Logan’s face.
Rune expected the woman to start screaming obscenities, at the very least, but Logan said nothing. She refused to look at Gavin.
“Would you like some water?” Ellis asked her.
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Gavin cleared his throat, the first sign of awkwardness he’d shown. “I need to know where my brother is. I need to know where the kill switch operator is. I need to know if there’s any way of removing the kill switch from our brains, and I need to know where Eugene put Gage’s weapon.” He gave her a nod. “You may speak now.”
Denim snorted. “You’re an idiot.”
A gleam of confusion lit the gargoyle’s eyes. “How would you ask?”
“It doesn’t matter how anyone asks,” Logan said, biting each word like it was a particularly bitter pill. “I’ll answer your questions.” She turned her head to look at Rune. “Under one condition. You will give your word to let me go after I’ve told you what I know.”
Rune frowned.
“You see,” Logan continued, “I realize the gargoyle has been very methodical in his…handling of me. He will kill me without blinking those icy cold motherfucking eyes.”
“And you don’t think I will?” Rune asked, a little insulted.
“Not if you swear to me that you won’t,” Logan said. “You’ll keep your word.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know enough. I know you’re honorable. I know you’re decent.” Logan’s shiny hair swung around her chin as she leaned forward. “If you tell me you won’t kill me, you won’t kill me.” She leaned back and waited.
“Tell her what she wants to hear,” Gavin said. “Let’s get on with it.”
“First,” Logan said, leaning forward again, “Untie me. You have nothing to fear from me. My hands are numb.”
Bellamy pulled a blade and sliced through the bonds. “You’re free. And that’s a hell of a lot more than I can say about us.”
Ellis walked back into the room and handed Logan a glass of water. “What are we talking about?”
“About honor,” Logan said, then took a drink of water. She didn’t seem to notice when she sloshed more of it onto herself than into her mouth.
Ellis helped her steady the glass and guided it to her mouth. “Her hands are swollen and her wrists are bloody.” He glared at Gavin. “You’re a terrible person, aren’t you?”
“I asked Rune to give me her word that she wouldn’t murder me once I’ve talked,” Logan told him. Maybe she understood how much influence he held over Rune.
“Rune wouldn’t kill you in cold blood,” Ellis assured her. “She’s not a murderer.” He glanced at Rune. “Not exactly.”
“We can’t trust you not to run to Eugene with what has happened here today,” Rune told Logan. “Can we?” She pointed at the gargoyles. “I don’t want to see them tortured. And if you had anything to do with them being implanted, I will kill you.”
“I don’t have any power in the Annex,” Logan said.
Rune hated to ask the question, but she had to. “What about Bill? Is he aware?”
Logan shook her head. “No. Eugene will ease him into this knowledge.”
“But you knew,” Rune said. “Beforehand.”
Logan looked at her hands. “No. No, I have been manipulated by everyone, it seems. I knew after it was done.”
“And Eugene is aware that you know?”
Logan tried for a laugh but it came out as a sob. “Eugene showed me.”
“He trusts you that much,” Denim said. “That means he thinks he has a reason to.”
“No,” Logan said. “It means that like most of his people, Eugene has something on me.”
“Answer my questions,” Gavin said, impatient.
Logan set her glass down on the end table. “Eugene is aware that Gavin and I had…dated. He warned me against it. Told me gargoyles could not be trusted.” She glanced at Gavin, then away. “Gavin convinced me to ask the director for two days off—today and tomorrow—which I did. Eugene is not expecting me back.”
“So?” Rune said.
“Gavin thinks that two days is long enough to take out the kill switch before the Annex starts to wonder what has happened to me. Once they realize he’s killed me, they’ll take him in and interrogate him. It won’t be pretty.”
Rune looked heavenward. “And?” she asked, with exaggerated patience.
“He’s right,” Logan murmured, not looking at any of them. “Two days will be long enough to get the kill switch out. Once it’s out of him, Gavin will have no reason to kill me.”
Rune knelt down in front of her. “You’re saying it’s possible to extract the device without killing the host?”
Logan met her gaze. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. But you’ll have to grab the surgeon who implanted them, as well as Dr. Johns. No one else will know how to do it. And that…” She shrugged. “That could prove tricky. Thing is, you’re running out of time.”
Rune pressed her hand to her chest. “Kader. My kid. Does he plan…?” She couldn’t even say the words.
Ellis put his fingers over his mouth and stepped back, the blood draining from his face. “Kader?”
Logan spread her hands. “I don’t know. I swear I don’t know. But Eugene is not the honorable man you think he is.” She shook her head, and then she looked at Gavin. “I was going to help you anyway, Gavin. I was looking into your brother’s circumstances, and I—”
“Where is he holding Gage?” Bellamy interrupted. “We need to get to him.”
“You can’t bring him out of there,” Logan told her. “He’s too far gone.”
Bellamy sneered. “We don’t want to get him out of there. We want to kill him.”
“We will set him free,” Gavin elaborated.
“What a mess,” Rune said. “And what a fucking waste of good fighters.”
“We’re not good,” Gavin told her. “We’re great. That’s why your boss wants to control us. He’s greedy, but more than that, he’s afraid an enemy group will lure us to their side.”
“Could happen,” Levi said. “You haven’t been treated well by…” He shrugged and didn’t look at Rune. “By any of us.”
Ellie narrowed his eyes. “They nearly killed Rune and Kader.”
“Yeah, they did,” Levi said. “I’m not excusing that. Just saying—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rune said. “And we have to go. Roma needs us.”
“What about her?” Bellamy pointed her chin at Logan.
“You took her,” Rune said. “You find a place to stash her until we figure this shit out.”
“You don’t have to stash me anyw
here,” Logan said, tiredly. “I’ll help you. I’ll help you because I never agreed with any of this. And then I’m going to get out of this business—if I’m still living when this is over—and I’m going to take myself home.”
“Where’s home?” Ellis asked her.
She gave a soft, distant smile. “A strange little town in Colorado. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Now I can’t wait to get back.”
“Can we trust her?” Bellamy asked Rune.
Rune met Logan’s stare and they watched each other for a few long seconds. Finally, Rune nodded. “Yeah. I think we can.”
She strode for the door, the twins beside her. “As soon as I’ve settled this thing with Roma, I’ll help you with the kill switch,” she told the gargoyles. “I have to do this first.”
Because the gargoyles could be Eugene’s slaves for a little while longer. But Roma…Roma was dying, and she could not wait.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Are you giving Sylvia the ashes?” Levi asked, once they were on their way back up the mountain.
Rune sped around a lumbering truck. “I’ll give her anything she wants if it’ll get her to free Roma.”
“The ashes aren’t going to do it,” Denim said.
“We have nothing to trade,” Rune murmured. “So I don’t know what the fuck to do. I’m just making shit up as I go.”
Jack called when she was ten minutes from arriving. “TV’s here.”
“Helicopter?”
“And some vans.”
“Fuck ‘em. I don’t care what they do as long as they stay out of our way.”
“The demon is messing with them.”
“I’m sure.” She paused, then, “Jack, Eugene burned Lee’s body. All I have is a jar of ashes.”
He said nothing, but she could feel his shock. His fear.
“We’ll figure it out,” she murmured, into his silence. “Tell the others.”
“Yeah.” He clicked off.
She ignored the reporters lining the road up to where Shiv Crew waited, and they didn’t step out in front of her car or anything else stupid. They knew Rune Alexander, and each one of them would have been reasonably certain she’d have run them over.
She drove as far up as she could, then she and the twins strode up the hill to join the rest of the crew. Luc and Leon stood a little apart from the rest of them, silent.
