Obsidian Wings (Rune Alexander)

by Laken Cane

  Rune realized the platform was so all the birds could witness the punished one’s torment.

  “Climb up,” Loraine said. “She’s coming.”

  Cree was shackled and dirty, her clothes bloody and torn. She was flanked by the berserker and two female birds. Fin walked behind the sad procession, his head down.

  When they reached the stand, one of the birds shifted, sank her claws into Cree’s flesh, and flew her to the platform.

  “Loraine,” Fin begged. “Please reconsider.”

  Loraine glowered at him. “If you wish, you may join her.”

  But he wasn’t finished pleading Cree’s case. “Punish her, but don’t take her wings. She’ll die out there without them.” He turned to Rune, his long hair covering the ruined half of his face. “Please, please. Punish her. Don’t take her wings.” He fell to the ground at Rune’s feet. “I beg you.”

  So maybe not all the birds were such coldhearted sons of bitches. Maybe that was a requirement of being a scepter.

  Another bird shifted and flew to the dais to help bind Cree. When they were finished, Cree was attached to the post by her silver-wrapped arms, ankles, and throat.

  The two birds dropped to the ground, leaving Cree alone.

  “When she shifts,” Loraine said, “the silver ropes will tighten as she struggles. She’ll be unable to escape.”

  “She can shift even though she’s covered with silver?” Jack asked, his voice harsh. He didn’t look at Rune when she glanced at him.

  Loraine smiled, and there was something dark and proud in her eyes. “Not alone, but I can force the shift.”

  Rune cleared her throat. “How?”

  “All birds can force the shift of their offspring.”

  “Cree is your daughter?”

  But Loraine didn’t have to answer. Cree did it for her.

  “Mother,” she screamed. “Mother, don’t.”

  Loraine looked at Rune. “I’m going to force her shift now. Go stand beside her and prepare to take your revenge. Then the debt will be paid and you will leave us to our lives.”

  And without another word, she turned, stared up at her child, and began to rip Cree’s bird into existence.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Rune was on the platform with Cree almost before she’d realized she’d even moved.

  The girl screamed and screamed, her body contorting as her mother forced her into a shift despite the silver fighting it.

  Loraine won.

  Blood and other fluids, wet and goopy, splattered Rune. She turned her head in disgust as an ill-smelling glob of mucus landed on her cheek before sliding off.

  Fin was suddenly beside her, his horrified gaze glued to Cree.

  The bird flopped in the silver bonds, unable to adapt to the forced shift. Huge wings beat weakly at the air, fanning Rune’s face and blowing through her hair.

  The more she struggled, the more her bonds tightened. Finally, the bird was choked into unconsciousness by the silver cutting into her throat.

  She slumped to the floor, her wet wings covering her.

  “Shit,” Rune whispered. She was accustomed to cruelty, but the bird’s torment was appalling.

  Fin leaped the couple of steps to the fallen bird, his face a mask of pain. He pushed his hair behind his ears, forgetting even to hide his scars. “Cree. Cree…”

  “Take her wings,” Loraine called. “Do it now while she is unconscious.” There was a note of weariness in her voice, but she didn’t waver.

  Fin tried again. “Loraine, please. No more.”

  “She can’t be excused simply because she’s my daughter. I have responsibilities to my people.” Her voice grew weaker and more tired as she tried, most likely unsuccessfully, to convince herself she had no choice in Cree’s punishment. “Take her wings.”

  The birds were silent, but an air of eagerness and excitement surrounded them. Had Loraine decided to reverse Cree’s fate, the birds would have rebelled.

  Cree stirred and moaned softly, then opened her black eyes.

  “Shhh,” Fin said, and petted her wings. “I know it’s a lot to ask,” he said to Rune as she crouched beside him. “I know she delivered you to the men who tortured you. But she thought she had no choice.”

  “She had a choice,” Rune replied. “She didn’t have to take me.” She turned her lip up. “And you. All of you. You knew what was happening to the twins, and yet you did nothing.” She shot her claws out. “You will all fucking die.”

  “Quickly now,” Loraine called, ignoring her threat.

  Rune glanced down at Strad. He stood tall and still, waiting. Watching her.

  “I’ll give you a choice,” she told Fin. “I can take her wings, or I can kill her. Decide.”

  Cree made a sound and Fin lowered his ear close to her face. Then he straightened. “She says she can give you Bach Horner. She’ll trade you for her wings.” He held up a hand when Rune started to speak. “She’s banished. She’ll live the rest of her life trying to find a way to live without her people. She’ll get away with nothing. But she won’t live through the night without her wings.” His stare was desperate and hot. He pulled a blade from his pocket. “If you take her wings, you’ll have to kill me first.”

  Rune gave a harsh laugh. “Do you think I won’t?”

  “I don’t know what else to do,” he said, his voice so heavy with pain Rune had to look away. “I love her. She’s more than you know. If not for her, do it for the location of your enemy. She’ll give him to you.”

  “You have one minute,” Loraine said. And maybe, maybe there was a spark of hope in her voice. Maybe she hoped Rune would take the choice from her.

  Maybe.

  Or maybe that was what Rune wanted to believe.

  “She’s not being punished for what she did to you,” Fin said, his voice so low she could barely hear him. He continued as she leaned closer. “They want to pacify you and the humans. Cree is being punished because she had Lara killed.”

  “What?”

  He gestured to the scepters below. “They don’t care about you, or the twins. They care about rules and power.”

  She shook her head and pressed her fingers to her temples. “She is responsible for the bird being tortured and nailed to the slaughterhouse?”

  “I can’t explain now, but if you let her keep her wings, I’ll find you tonight. I’ll tell you everything.”

  Fuck. She closed her eyes for an instant, and when she opened them, she’d made her decision. COS’s location was more important than her need to destroy Cree Stark. She would take care of Cree another time.

  “Give me his location.”

  Fin stared at her as he fought to absorb her words. Then, “What?”

  “I said, give me fucking Horner’s location.”

  “You’re…”

  “Yes. Yes. I’ll let the bitch keep her wings. I’ll cut her loose.” She leaned closer to him. “But if you’re lying to me, I will find you. Both of you.”

  His nod was quick and jerky. “Thank you. Thank you.” He bent over Cree. “Tell me.”

  She must have, though Rune understood nothing she said.

  “He’s in Rock County,” Fin said, his voice low and fast. “In the Camp.”

  Rune nodded. Without hesitating, she stood, slid her claws under the silver around Cree’s throat, and sliced through the rope.

  “No,” someone yelled, and the others took up the scream. The birds began shifting and Rune knew she had maybe ten seconds before they were on her.

  Fin sliced through the silver around Cree’s ankles, and when she was free, he shifted. He pecked at Cree’s face, leaving wounds that started bleeding immediately.

  Cree got up.

  Rune dropped her fangs, welcomed her monster, and jumped from the platform to the ground below.

  The scepters didn’t try hide. They didn’t shift, either, but stood in a line in front of the platform to watch their birds fight for them.

  The birds were huge,
with deadly, sharp beaks and blade-like talons, and they had no fear. They wanted the fight, the blood, the excitement.

  “Kill them,” Loraine ordered, and the birds attacked.

  “We’re here,” Lex shouted, running to Rune, her face bright with savage joy.

  The berserker didn’t hesitate. Resolute in his loyalty for Rune and Shiv Crew, he slashed his way through bird after bird, his roar of rage wrapping Rune in familiarity and comfort.

  She threw herself into the midst of the battle, knowing that with every slash of her claws she was one step closer to Bach Horner.

  Chapter Thirty

  Each member of the crew was a fighter—mean, special, bloodthirsty.

  But they were missing three of their men and the birds were no less bad than Strad had warned.

  The crew, battered and bloody, attacked from the air by screeching beasts, was losing the battle.

  Strad had warned her.

  Rune saw him thrust his spear through the wing of a slightly small male bird, pin him to the ground, and say something she couldn’t begin to hear, even with her sensitive ears.

  She lost track of him as she became occupied with an enormous bird about to take her head off with talons the size of short swords. When she managed to look his way once more, both Strad and the pinned bird had disappeared.

  She’d pulled her crew into a battle they simply couldn’t win. There were too many of the enormous birds, and they torpedoed the crew from the air as the ones on the ground used beaks and claws to try to rip their opponents apart.

  Then the attacks began to lessen. She understood, even as a talon shredded her left arm, that the birds were retreating.

  “Stand your ground,” Loraine screamed. “Destroy them!”

  But the birds deserted their scepters, and they did it in a hurry. In seconds, they were gone.

  As the echoes of their cawing voices faded away, the crew stared at the line of scepters.

  “Shift,” Rune said. “And fight.”

  Strad had saved them. What he’d said to the bird he’d pinned she might never know, but he’d saved them.

  And the playing field was a little more level.

  Loraine spat at Strad, her eyes narrow. “You. You did this. You’re more of a traitor than Cree. I should never have taken you in. This is how you repay me?”

  Bloody and huge, the berserker moved one step closer to his crew. “I trusted you, and that was my mistake. You threw in your lot with COS. Now shift and fight, or I will cut you down while you stand there making accusations.”

  There was doubt or hesitation in his voice. Still, Rune understood him. He would be haunted by guilt for the rest of his life—not just because he’d have to destroy the scepters, but because he’d allowed them to hurt his crew. To hurt Rune.

  But they all had their crosses to bear.

  “We’re birds,” Loraine said. “We take care of our own. Outsiders do not concern us. You do not concern us.”

  “I was one of you,” he said.

  She released peals of laughter, and the laughter did not sound forced. She was genuinely amused. “You were never one of us. No matter that we saved your life and kept you from the ones who abused you, you were always human.” Her voice softened. “You were never one of us. We are not obligated to you, Strad.”

  Strad paled, but shook off Loraine’s callous blow. “You made a deal to harbor COS and hide my crew for some land,” Strad said, his voice tight. The rage was obvious, but he was controlling it.

  Loraine shrugged. “We didn’t hurt your people. We needed the land. The church was generous in their terms. You, of all people, should know we do what we must to survive in a human’s world.”

  Lex, maybe afraid the scepter’s words would sway the berserker, or make him shoulder even more guilt, stepped up beside him. “You allowed COS to torture the twins,” she yelled. Then she pointed at Rune.

  “Lex, no,” Rune said, but Lex said it anyway.

  “They beat Rune. They raped her. And you let them do it. You’re as guilty as COS. More so. Now shift and fight, motherfuckers.”

  Before she’d finished speaking, Strad strode to Rune and grabbed her arm. “Look at me,” he said, his voice raw.

  It was maybe the hardest thing she’d ever done. She looked at him, and gave him the truth.

  The berserker blanched. “Fuck,” he whispered. “No.”

  She said nothing. She didn’t have to.

  Behind her, someone touched her shoulder.

  “Rune?” Raze asked.

  Without waiting for the scepters to shift, Strad roared, his voice so full of pain Rune flinched, and he went after the birds.

  They shifted almost before she could blink—seven scepters against six Shiv Crew members.

  As one, they attacked the man they considered the biggest threat at that moment—the berserker.

  They knew what he could do.

  He threw himself at them and they circled him, their wings beating the crew back as they took on Strad Matheson.

  But the crew would not be stayed.

  Rune ripped through wings much thicker and stronger than they looked, her claws slicing through them like a razorblade through cloth.

  She had to get to Strad.

  The birds backed off the berserker when they were overwhelmed by the crew, and Rune caught a glimpse of Strad as a bird attacked him from behind and Loraine, it had to be Loraine, sliced open his face.

  He turned to take care of the bird at his back, not even appearing to notice the blood pouring from his face.

  Rune went after Loraine.

  No matter how angry he was at the birds, no matter how much he hated them, he shouldn’t be the one to kill the woman who’d helped raise him.

  So Rune did that for him.

  The rest of the fight was a blur. The birds, especially the scepters, were in no way weak or afraid of a fight. The scepters might think a common battle was beneath them, but when it came down to it, the birds seemed unstoppable.

  One of them grabbed Jack in its lethal talons and before he could cut his way loose, the bird flew into the sky with him.

  Jack never made a sound.

  “No,” Rune yelled, running. There were two other scepters still fighting, and the crew kept them occupied as Rune called upon everything inside her to save Jack.

  The bird dropped him.

  She was a monster, true, but she was pretty sure there was no way she could catch Jack. No way she’d be able to save him.

  Except she had to.

  She jumped. She left the ground like she had springs attached to her feet, and then…

  She soared.

  But she wasn’t flying, exactly. More like a guided jump. A hell of jump, straight from the ground twenty feet into the air, and then she snatched Jack from his rapid descent and into her arms.

  They fell, the heaviness of Jack’s limp body forcing her into a fierce plummet back to the ground.

  She was going to collide with the hard earth, and she had a bad feeling it was going to hurt like a motherfucker.

  The impact knocked Jack from her grip, and the world spun crazily as she tried to climb to her feet. She lurched, then fell to her knees.

  “Rune,” Lex said. “Steady.”

  “Jack,” Rune gasped.

  “He’s good,” Raze said.

  She knelt on the ground and grabbed her head, waiting for her equilibrium to sort itself out, and for the dizziness to subside.

  Strad knelt beside her. “I’m here.”

  “The scepters?”

  “Dead.”

  “Somebody get Jack.”

  The fight was over.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “I think we need to let the birds come back,” Rune said.

  Strad looked almost comically surprised. “What?”

  “The scepters ruled them. The scepters are dead. One thing I learned is the birds will make better allies than enemies. If we encourage an alliance…”

  “T
he birds may not honor it even if they agree to it,” Strad said. “If another group offers them a better deal...”

  “It’s something to think about,” Rice said.

  “If they think it’s in their best interest, they’ll do it,” Strad told her. “But you will never be able to fully trust a bird.”

  “Me trusting a bird is not something you’ll ever see, Berserker.”

  “What about Cree and Fin?” Ellis asked.

  “No. The birds banished Cree Stark. She can stay the fuck banished.” She put her hands on her hips and stared Strad down. “I hope that won’t be a problem for you.”

  He sighed. “Rune, Cree was like a little cousin to me. She was a pain in the ass. Not a lover.” He held his hand up as she started to speak. “I wouldn’t let her come back even if you wanted her to. She’s dead to the birds, and she’s dead to me.”

  But there was a gleam of sadness in his eyes.

  It had been two short days since the battle with the birds, and the crew was still healing. But other than the pain and occasional bleeding where she’d been twice staked, Rune was already healed.

  The wound Loraine had given Strad dissected his left eyebrow, ran down his cheek, and didn’t stop until it reached his chin.

  Rune flinched every time she looked at the raw, healing wound. She didn’t want to see any of her crew damaged and hurting.

  But especially not the berserker.

  They hadn’t talked yet, but she knew it was time. And she dreaded it.

  He needed her to feed from him, but he wasn’t going to relieve his need until they talked. “I want your forgiveness more than I want to ease my addiction,” he’d said.

  “Berserker, I—”

  “No,” he said, his gaze tender. “No, sweetheart. When you’re ready.”

  She wanted to bite Strad. Wanted to.

  But she couldn’t. Not yet.

  She didn’t want to be forced to remember that night on the mountain. Strad was devastated that the slayers who’d raped her had already been dealt with.

  “Some of the ones who tortured the twins are still out there, Berserker. Take out your rage on them.”

  “Count on it,” he said.

  The Church Of Slayers would die.