by Laken Cane
“I am now the director. You are the only one who knows.” He glanced at his watch. “In exactly one hour, Eugene will be taken.”
The elevator stopped.
The doors slid open.
“Some of these people deserve to be here. If you knew what they’d done, you’d kill them yourself. But some of them don’t deserve to be here. I need you to believe me when I say I’m going to release them myself.”
She stared at him. “Who’s in there?”
“The gargoyle, Gage, for one.” He sighed, then took her hand. He looped it over his arm, patted it, then stepped out of the elevator with her at his side.
They walked down a hallway so brightly lit it hurt her eyes, and then into reception, a large room with tall fake plants pushed into the corners. Three sliding glass windows were in the walls, and behind each one sat two women.
The women in the middle cubicle didn’t open the window, but there was a small circle cut from the glass, and it was that hole through which one of them spoke. “May I help you?”
Bill flashed a badge. “I called ahead.”
“Of course, Mr. Rice. You’re cleared to go in.” She smiled at him, but the smile didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.
She glanced at Rune and tried the same smile on her, but Rune stared at her, emotionless, and the smile faltered. “I’ll need to see your ID,” the receptionist said, crisply. “And your badge, please.”
The ID hung on a lanyard around Rune’s neck, and she grabbed it and held it up, then stepped back so the woman could see the badge clipped to her belt, along with a holstered gun.
The receptionist tried her smile again. “Er…they’ll confiscate your weapons in the next room.”
Bill sighed. “Open the door.”
A buzz sounded from across the room, and the large double door clicked. “You may go in now,” the woman said, not looking at Rune again.
As the receptionist had predicted, Rune’s weapons were taken from her in the next room, an area full of ops she was pretty sure she’d never seen. She didn’t care about the weapons. They couldn’t take her claws, and those were the only weapons that really mattered.
And finally, a man led them through yet another door. To the cells.
On either side of the hall were walls of glass, partitioned by thin strips of steel. The cells behind the windows were large, and lit with white, cold light that allowed not so much as a shadow of darkness to linger.
The cells contained a bed, a toilet, and a sink. Some of the walls held posters, and the small tables held stacks of books, magazines, and notebooks.
Most of the cells were empty, but as she marched down the hallway behind the guide, Rune caught glimpses of some of the inmates.
A woman stood at the window of her cell, watching them come. When they drew even, she glanced at Rune, dismissed her, and her stare went to Bill.
She smiled, slowly, and though the woman wasn’t looking at her, Rune shuddered. The inmate had the cruelest smile Rune had ever seen.
And she’d seen some cruel smiles.
“I told you some of these people belong here,” Bill said, and they walked on.
“So the gargoyle,” Rune said. “Is he…aware?” She wanted to ask if he were kill-switched, but stopped herself at the last moment. There were too many ears in the ACI.
“I’ll have him evaluated,” Bill said. They turned the corner and began to walk down another row of cells. “Here we are.”
Rune stopped beside him, steeling herself. Gage Delaney was…
She frowned, then moved closer to the window, and peered in at the inmate on the cot.
It wasn’t Gage Delaney in the cell.
“Son of a bitch,” she breathed. “Lee Crane. Fucking Lee Crane.”
Bill nodded. “Eugene lied about killing her.”
He wasn’t willing to exchange Lee to save Roma. He hadn’t been willing to trade Lee for any of his people. “My crew could have died on that mountain,” Rune said. “Roma…everything that happened to her…” She shook her head. “But why, Bill?”
He stared into the window. “She was the love of his life, Rune.”
“The director of the Annex loved the director of the fucking Next?”
“Yes—but when they fell in love, neither of them led anyone.”
“But—”
“Their story doesn’t matter. That love turned to hatred so powerful it controlled them. Made Eugene put her into a cell upstairs and torture her. After he pretended to kill her, he moved her to the ACI and we never even suspected she lived. That he’d rather keep Lee to himself than give her back to her daughter and save Roma. At least,” he added, “not at first.”
“Jill?” she asked.
“Is helping him with the kill switches.”
“Let’s go take care of Eugene,” she said. “Let’s go take care of fucking Eugene.”
By the time they walked into Eugene’s office, her outrage and anger had softened and pain grew in its place.
He looked up at them, surprised. “Bill? What is it?”
“You’ve always been a champion of Others,” Rune said, not bothering with niceties. “You’ve been the good guy.”
He nodded, slowly. “Yes. And I always will be.”
“Yet you saved the kill switch technology. You kill-switched the gargoyles.” She shook her head. “You are not the good guy, Eugene. Not anymore.”
He straightened his tie, then rubbed his chin, his movements jerky. Nervous. Guilty. “You yourself said I’d need to find a different way to control the gargoyles, Rune. I found it.”
She didn’t bother to argue with him. It wouldn’t have mattered. “We have to destroy the technology. We have to destroy Jill—Dr. Johns. Both those things were in your hands, but your greed won. Now it’s on us.”
“Us?” His eyes darkened as the first stirrings of anger began to cover the nervousness in his eyes. “Who is us, Rune?”
“The Annex,” Bill said, stepping farther into the room. “The ops. Shiv Crew.” He hesitated. “Me. As new director of the Annex, it is up to me. And I’ll make sure it is destroyed.”
“Why, Eugene?” Rune asked, understanding even as she asked the question that part of her was hoping he’d have an answer that made everything okay.
“New director?” Eugene ignored her question and concentrated on Bill. “I am the director of this Annex, and I have no intention of stepping down. Although I must say I do admire your ambition.”
“You recommended me should something happen to you,” Bill said, gently. “And I was accepted.”
Eugene drummed his fingers on the desk, his gaze flitting from Bill to Rune and back again. “Nothing is happening to me, though, is it?”
“I’m afraid it is,” Bill said. “You see, Oversight has been made aware of your actions. You’re their problem now. I am now in charge of the Annex, and you are out.”
Eugene stood, finally. “You can’t do that. Don’t forget what I have on you, Bill. I’m sure Oversight would like to—”
“It’s done, Eugene,” Rune said. “And you can’t be here anymore.”
“I have things on all of you,” Eugene roared, desperate. “If I fall, you all fall. The Annex falls. Is that what you want? Will you really betray me this way? Rune? Will you?”
She said nothing. Eugene knew what he’d done. He knew what he’d become. And he knew what was going to happen.
He sat down, slowly, and lowered his head. “It’ll eat you alive, Bill. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
Rune didn’t want to cry. She wanted to be angry, not sad. She tried to swallow her tears, but they overflowed anyway. “I saw Lee. Alive.”
He paled. “That’s my business.”
“Fuck you,” she whispered. “Fuck you for being a traitor. Fuck you for hurting your people. Fuck you for making us care.”
Because he’d done good things. Great things.
And that made it even worse.
“Rune,” Bill said, his voice
soft but firm. “You should leave now, dear. Send in the officers.”
Bill had told her that Eugene would be retired to the Ranch, a place that, while it sounded nice and benign, still carried connotations of dread and fear. Because when someone in management went to the Ranch, no one ever saw or heard from them again.
Maybe it was a nice, covert place in the country where Eugene would be taken care of. But somehow, Rune doubted it.
“Rune,” Eugene called. “Rune.”
She hesitated at the door.
“I saved Fie, remember? I saved you. Countless times. And I saved Kader. Don’t you owe me something for that?”
She nodded, finally. “I owe you everything. But this isn’t about me, Eugene. It’s about you.” And she slipped through the doorway, her heart heavy, her doubt inescapable.
It was done.
She only wished it hadn’t hurt so very much.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The crew sat around her table, drinking coffee, finishing up dessert, silent despite the changes they should have been discussing.
Ellis stared into space, only stirring once to mention that he missed Roma.
“She’ll be okay,” Rune said. “She’ll be home soon.”
Ellie nodded.
Levi caught Rune’s eye and shrugged. Ellis was quietly upset—Rune figured it was because of the fact that she’d taken Kader to the mountain. That she’d turned Kader into a monster.
Even if he wouldn’t admit it.
“So, you’re a shifter,” Raze said. “How about that?”
Rune grinned. “And Kader, with those wings…”
“When you threw her into the air,” Jack said, his voice deep and awed, “and she broke the wall. She knew to break the wall.” He shook his head. “How’d she know? I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like that again.”
“Bad thing, though,” Denim said. “TV got a clip.”
Rune nodded, sobering. “But it was fuzzy, only a few seconds, and really, if you didn’t know, could you tell that was a kid?”
“The two of you,” Jack said. “When she grows up, won’t be anything you can’t do.”
“Not going to need us,” Raze said, and saluted her with his coffee cup.
“I will always need you,” Rune said. “Imagine what I’d have turned into if not for you.” She looked at Ellis. “If not for Ellie. And it’ll be the same for Kader.”
“Rune,” Ellis said, suddenly.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going away for a little while.”
She set her mug on the table. “Why?”
Levi frowned. “Ellie? What the hell?”
Ellis stared at his plate. “I’ve just made the decision. I wasn’t sure before. Now I’m sure.”
“Sure about what?” Rune asked. “Is your mother okay?”
“I just…I need to get away for a little while.”
“Ellie, we need you here,” Rune told him.
Finally, he looked at her. “I know that. I know that now more than ever. You do need me. Kader needs me.” He smiled, at last, and it was a genuine smile. Even if it was a little sad.
“Then why are you leaving?” she asked.
“I need some time to myself. A little vacation. When I come back, I’ll be…” He shrugged. “I’ll be better.”
“Are you sick?” She frowned and put the back of her hand against his forehead.
He laughed. “No, and I’m not twelve.”
“Rune,” Jack said, shoving back his plate. “With Eugene gone…”
“Everything else is the same,” she said, taking her hand from Ellis’s cool forehead. “And Reign will be taken care of just the same. We lost Eugene. We gained Bill.”
“And we can trust Bill,” Raze growled. “Right?”
“Yeah,” she said, quietly. “Yeah. We can trust Bill.”
“Does anybody know when Logan took off? She didn’t make an official announcement or say goodbye,” Levi noted.
“Imagine that,” Rune said, dryly. “Anyone seen Will or Strad?”
“No,” Jack said, “but they’ll turn up. Probably with that vampire-saving dog in tow.”
“So Luc and Leon,” Denim said. “They’re out, too?”
She nodded. “Except as floaters. They don’t want to be in on any demon torture shit, but they’ll come when we need a couple of extras in a fight.”
“We’ve had some fucked-up floaters,” Jack said. “Remember Sherry?”
Rune laughed. “A million years ago. That woman was nuts.”
Levi stood. “Ellie. Come talk to me.”
Ellis sighed, but he stood. He leaned down to give Rune a one-armed hug. “Goodnight, Rune. I love you. Know it?”
She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. “Back at you, baby.”
“Goodnight, everybody,” he told the others.
She watched him leave the room, her heart heavy. It didn’t feel like he was saying goodnight. It felt like he was saying goodbye.
“What’s going on with him?” Denim asked.
But she had no answer.
Someone has to die.
She gripped the edge of the table, a little too hard, then let up when it gave a groan.
“What?” Jack asked.
“Someone has to die in Nikolai’s place,” she said. “Don’t ask me how I know. I just…” She swallowed hard, then shook her head. “I just know.”
Raze leaned forward. “Kill someone, then,” he suggested, ever helpful.
“I don’t think it works that way,” she told him. “I think it’s tied up in Nikolai and Grim and…” She blew out a deep breath. “Maybe if I kill a vampire?”
But no one knew.
She stood. “I’m going to sleep. Grab a couch, a bed, or a floor. You know where the sleeping bags are.” She glanced at the huge gaping hole where Kader had “boomed” the wall, and sighed. “Good thing it’s warm out.”
Annex ops guarded the house, and had orders to stop everyone—whether they knew them or not. She’d told them to allow Strad, Will, or Grim inside, but no one else.
Kader had been on TV and there was a hole in the wall.
They needed the guards.
On her way to her bedroom, she spotted the package Gunnar had given her, and after a slight hesitation, she scooped it up.
Whatever anxiety she’d had when she thought of opening it had disappeared. They’d gone into hell on that mountain. A little package, no matter what it held, no longer had the power to worry her.
Gunnar had said she needed it.
She looked in on her sleeping daughter before walking on to her bedroom. She climbed into bed and sat cross-legged with the package before her, trying to ignore thoughts of Roma’s fingers nestled in the last package she’d opened.
Then, taking a deep breath, she broke the old twine and unrolled the layers of paper. She knew what it was before she saw it, because she smelled it.
Z’s jacket, the one he’d dropped at the gates of Wormwood the night they’d caught Ben’s dad. And however faint, his scent still rose from the leather.
She held it reverently, then buried her face in its softness. For a moment, sadness and loss overwhelmed her.
“I got you something for Christmas.”
“You know I don’t like that.”
“Still. I—” He paled and slapped a hand to his chest. “Oh shit.”
“What is it?”
“My fucking jacket.”
“Ah. You left it at Wormwood.”
“Your present is in the pocket.”
She grinned. “See? Fate intervened on my behalf. Don’t get me fucking presents.”
“I needed to, sweet thing. I’m going to swing by the graveyard before I go home. Maybe…”
“It’s gone, baby. Buy yourself a new jacket and move on.”
He’d sighed, his eyes dark and angry in the cold light. Not at her. “It wasn’t the coat, Rune.”
She sobbed, then, remembering, her heart breaking al
l over again. “Z, I miss you. I miss you.”
She put the jacket on and lay back, feeling almost like he was there and she was wrapped in his arms instead of his old jacket.
“Your present is in the pocket.”
She shot her eyes open and sat up again, slapping the pockets until she felt the small bulge in one of them. She slid her fingers into the pocket and pulled out a small silk bag.
“God,” she murmured. “Z.”
She poured the contents of the bag into her palm, smiling through her tears. There was a folded slip of paper, and an intricately designed platinum wedding band. Tiny diamonds sparkled like they held the light of a thousand suns.
She caressed the carved, diamond crusted leaves, then read what he’d written on the paper.
“I’m supposed to give this ring to my wife. There’s never going to be anyone for me but you. You’re my sweet thing. You should have the ring. You already have my heart.”
Then, below that, he’d written, “Smile, sweet thing. I know you love me.”
And she did smile, because his words eased her heart.
He had known.
And he’d had the ring engraved.
I’m your Z. You’re my Rune. Always.
“Always,” she whispered, then closed her eyes and took the ring to her lips. “Always.”
When she opened her eyes, the berserker stood in the doorway, watching her. His eyes glittered almost as brightly as the ring.
“Z’s gift,” she whispered.
His stare softened, and he walked to the bed, then sat down beside her. They regarded each other silently, until finally he reached out to slide his fingers through the tears on her cheeks.
“Lie with me,” she said.
And then, exhausted, she lay back, secure in Z’s jacket and wrapped in the berserker’s arms.
When she awakened the next morning, the berserker was gone, and so was the ring.
In her heart, she knew it was okay.
Because no matter what had happened or would happen, she trusted Strad Matheson.
With her ring, and with her heart.
It was time.
Epilogue
“Roma, you can’t be here,” Rune said. “It’s only been a week. Go back to the hospital.”
