by Laken Cane
“He wanted you to follow him,” Jack said.
“Yeah,” Rune agreed. “I don’t know why the visitors would pick a fight with vampires and don’t really care. That’s between the Others and the vampires. But why would someone tie you up and leave you?”
He started to shake his head, then stopped, flinching. “Move away, love. I’m feeling the distinct need to—”
She barely had time to leap away before he threw up. “Paramedics are waiting. You have a concussion most likely.” She bit her bottom lip. “This does not make sense.”
“And you don’t like when things don’t make sense,” Z murmured, leaning weakly against the tree. His voice was becoming weaker. “I feel like shit. That makes sense.”
“Let him lean on you, Jack. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” What was it? Why would someone…
“They wanted to delay us,” she said, still frowning. She had to walk fast to keep up as Jack ushered Z along, half carrying him.
“Brilliant mind at work,” Z said. His words were slurred, but he didn’t seem overly confused.
“Why would they want to keep us here?”
“I don’t know, Jack. We’re all accounted for.” She spotted the twins and Amy by the gate. The twins stood with her between them, and they’d had to cuff her after all.
It hit her with a suddenness that nearly knocked her to her knees. She stopped walking. Forgot to walk. “Oh fuck, no.”
Jack stopped walking, but Z pulled out of his grasp and went on toward the gate. Jack let him go, his concerned stare on Rune. “What?”
“Where’s Raze?” she whispered. Her lips felt numb and made it difficult to speak.
He looked up and around. “I don’t—there he is. He’s coming, Rune. He’s okay.”
He thought she was worried for Raze. “Ellis, Jack. They wanted to delay us because some-fucking-one wants to mess with us. And the best way to do that is to hurt one of us. Ellis…”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the others. “Open the gates.”
Once outside the gate he dug his cell out of his pocket and punched in Ellis’s number.
It rang, and rang.
“Oh God,” Rune said. No. No, please no.
Raze joined them. “What’s wrong?”
All her men stared at her with dread-filled gazes. They knew her. She wasn’t the type to get hysterical over nothing. “Ellis.” Her words were whispered—she couldn’t seem to make her voice work. If something happened to Ellis…
But then Jack spoke. “Ellis, are you—”
Rune snatched the phone from him. “Ellie, tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay. What’s going on?”
She wobbled on her feet and handed Jack back his phone. He muttered a few words to Ellis and clicked off.
She waved over the paramedics and pointed at Z. “He was knocked unconscious. Take him in.”
“I’m okay, Rune,” Z said, but his face was pale and his eyes were slightly unfocused.
“Go to the hospital, Z.”
He sighed but didn’t argue further, climbing onto the stretcher.
A sudden flash of light caused her to jump. “What—”
The fucking reporter was still there. And taking pictures of them. He snapped another one of Z being hauled away, then another of the still-dazed Rune. She turned her back, ignoring him.
“I’m sorry, guys. I thought they’d gone after Ellis.”
“Who, Rune?” asked Denim. He stood with a hand on Amy’s shoulder, and Rune realized the reporter was going to write that they’d brought the human out in cuffs. The human they were supposed to have gone in to rescue.
She didn’t want Amy having to deal with the scorn of the city. She already had too much on her bony shoulders. “I’m not really sure, Denim. Put Amy in my car. Levi, walk behind to hide the cuffs from that annoying bastard.”
She took a deep breath and tried to make herself relax. But she couldn’t. Something still wasn’t quite right. “Raze, can you take the twins home? I’ll take Amy to the hospital to be looked at, and I’ll look in on Z. Jack—”
“I’m coming with you.”
She only nodded. “I’ll check in with you guys later.”
It had been a long day. Hard to believe that just a short few hours earlier she’d been standing on stage all dressed up.
Now she was covered with goo from her dead father, a cold sheen of nervous sweat, and graveyard mud. “I need coffee.” Like someone there could conjure her a cup.
She climbed into the driver’s side of her car, cranking up the heater. Amy wasn’t dressed for winter. Hell, she was barely dressed.
Jack took the cuffs off Amy, then jumped into the backseat. “Let’s go get your coffee. I wouldn’t mind having some dinner.”
“We all should meet somewhere after we get Amy settled in and check on Z.”
“I’ll call Raze.”
She glanced at Amy while Jack spoke with Raze. “How are you doing?”
Amy shrugged, but leaned toward the heat blasting from the vents, shivering. “I’ve been better.”
“Is there anything else you can tell me about the extorter?”
“No. After you check on Z, take me to your house. Maybe I’ll remember something.”
Rune frowned. The poor girl’s desperation was obvious. She needed to belong with—and to—someone. “Jeremy isn’t going to be finished with you that soon, and I doubt the hospital will be either.” Amy was probably dehydrated and appeared half starved. Jeremy would be thrilled about the vampire bites all over her body. Just one more reason for the purge he’d ordered.
Amy rubbed her face. “Why haven’t I turned? Why?”
Rune stared straight ahead, silent. She had no idea why Amy was one of the few people difficult to turn. Usually a bite was all it took. Amy had been chomped on for weeks and nothing.
“Being immortal is living in unimaginable pain and knowing you will never, ever find peace.”
Before she pulled away from Wormwood she sent her father a silent farewell. She wished talking with him that one last time could have helped settle things within her. But no, that horror wound around her like a silver coil and refused to loosen.
Jack leaned toward the front seat. “Raze and the twins will meet us at the steakhouse in an hour. Sound good?”
She nodded. “Amy, it would be better for you if you told Jeremy the vampires mesmerized you and gave you the bites.”
Amy’s stare was hard. “So I should lie and get the vampires in trouble, give the cops another reason to slaughter them all. That’s what I should do.”
Rune sighed. “It won’t go well for you if you tell the truth.”
“Fuck you.”
She didn’t blame the girl for being pissed. “Rest tonight. I’ll come see you tomorrow. Llodra gave you permission to tell everything. You need to tell me everything you know or have heard.”
Amy sneered. “Oh? Why should I do that?”
“Because I might be able to save the vampires.”
Amy said nothing, and Rune knew she’d dig deep and think hard. The chances were slight but better than nothing.
She asked Jack to call Jeremy. She couldn’t talk to him. Not yet.
She took Amy into the emergency department, showing her badge when the doctor on call eyed Amy with a sharp gleam of contempt in his eyes and refused to admit her. “RISC is coming to question her. Believe me. You’ll want her hidden away in a quiet room before they get here.”
As soon as Amy was settled in, Rune went to find Z. He’d been admitted for observation.
“Go,” Z said. “They’ve given me something that will cure my woes. Go eat.” He lifted a hand and brushed back her hair. “You look like you’ve had a hard night, sweet thing. And not in a good way.”
Z looked small and pale in his hideous hospital gown, but he was alive.
“Don’t call me sweet thing.” She leaned over to kiss his forehead, surprising both of them. Rune had never been t
he physically affectionate sort. But when a person came close to losing someone, she might want a few touches. She pressed her lips against his skin, lingering on the warmth. Life. Life was warm.
Jack urged her away. “Get better, faker,” he said to Z. “May your night be filled with enemas and long, fat catheters.”
Z’s eyes closed and he grinned. “Get out.”
They met RISC coming in as they were leaving. When her cell rang, Rune was happy for the excuse to ignore Jeremy as he marched before his team. “Yeah.”
“Rune. It’s Raze. Something…”
She strode to her car, Jack beside her. Her mind was still on Jeremy. “Raze? You cut out. What?”
She unlocked the car door and was in her seat before Raze spoke again.
“It’s Lex, Rune.”
Tremors started in her hands, and she nearly dropped the phone. “No.”
“What now?” Jack asked.
“Tell me.”
“She’s alive. The twins are taking her to a clinic for Others.”
“Where?”
“Twenty-one Rue Canyon Road. In Willowburg.”
“What happened?”
Jack stayed silent, knowing she’d tell him when she could.
“While we were in Wormwood, she was attacked.”
It wasn’t Ellis. It was Lex.
She could barely force the words past her numb lips. “How is she?”
He hesitated. “She’s bad, Rune.”
“Fuck,” she whispered, and handed her phone to Jack. “Someone attacked Lex. She’s hurt badly.” She repeated the address of the clinic. “Call Ellie.”
“What did—”
“That’s all I know.”
Jack punched in Ellis’s number. “You think someone delayed us at Wormwood just so he could attack Lex? What the fuck?”
She shook her head, muttering words she wanted to scream. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. It’s fucked-up.” Jack didn’t even hear her. He was on the phone dealing with Ellis.
She heard Ellis shouting and understood his panic.
Lex, little Lex. What kind of monster could hurt the girl?
When she found out, he was dead. But first she would make him suffer.
If, of course, she got to him before the twins did.
“Rune,” Jack said, his voice emotionless.
“What?”
“Someone is playing with us. If you don’t want to go to Cross with this, you have to take it to Rice.”
Yes. She did. Should have already. Maybe it wouldn’t have saved Lex, but maybe it would have. “Fuck me,” she whispered.
She wanted to close her eyes and hide, just for a moment. Just reset her mind. But she couldn’t.
She stared straight ahead, her eyes burning.
Just let her be okay.
Chapter Twenty
She thought she had the wrong address. The place on Rue Canyon Road was a ramshackle house squatting on a tall black hill at the edge of the town. It looked like a scene from a horror movie instead of a clinic.
Jack shrugged and stepped out of the car, his hand on his gun.
The area was so Other she could feel it, like a clammy second skin. That hill was not a place for humans.
One smallish, thin tree stood like a sentinel in the yard. Its branches were bare, skinny arms that reached imploringly for visitors.
She shivered. “Do you feel that?”
Jack kept his hand on his gun, his gaze sharp and constantly moving. “Feel what?”
The small hairs stood up on her arms like needles. “Draw your gun, Jack. The monsters are watching.”
He didn’t ask questions, just drew his gun and walked with her, slowly, toward the front of the house. There were no sounds.
It was spooky as hell. That hill, that tree, that house…none of it belonged in a human’s world.
“Eerie,” Jack murmured.
The front of the house boasted a rickety porch on which sat an ancient rocking chair. A weak yellow light screwed into the porch ceiling was of little help in chasing back the shadows.
Raze’s truck was sitting in the gravel drive. Neither of the twins’ cars was there, so Raze must have brought them all in. She punched Raze’s number into her cell, relieved when he answered. It was as though she’d traveled into another universe. She hadn’t really expected to hear his voice.
“We’re here, but I don’t see a clinic. House on a hill?”
“Yes. Knock on the door. I’ve let them know you’re coming.”
She banged on the door, a cop’s knock she’d picked up years ago. She eased to one side of the door, Jack to the other.
Before she could knock again it was pulled open by a calm older man wearing a black suit. His hair was silvering, his eyes bright blue in the wrinkles of a not unfriendly face. “Hello.”
She gave him a quick nod. “My name is Rune Alexander and this is Jack Slaughter. I was told you were expecting us.”
He stepped back, pulling the door open wider. “Please.”
It was just rude to have their guns out when Raze had assured them they were welcome. She slid her gun back into its bed and heard Jack do the same.
When she stepped over the threshold, a little prickle of unease hit the back of her neck. She resisted pulling one of her shivs, although holding a bit of sharp silver in her hand would have made her feel immeasurably more confident.
“Follow me,” he said.
“What’s your name, sir?”
“William.”
He wasn’t going to volunteer any information, and she didn’t think William was anyone she needed to worry about. “Can you take us to our friends?”
“Yes.”
Talky sort.
The living room was minimally furnished and clean. A few touches had been added in an attempt to make the space look cozy, but there was an abandoned air about it that the little vase of fake flowers and the doilies couldn’t obscure.
William led them through a small kitchen equally as bland as the living room. In the kitchen were two doors. One led to the back of the house and one opened up into a large elevator.
William motioned them inside, pushed a button, and withdrew before the doors shut.
When the elevator stopped seconds later and the doors opened, she stood for a moment, gaping. “What the fuck?”
They were in a fresh, clean, well-lit…hospital. Sort of. The rickety old house sat on top of a perfectly functional clinic. She guessed the house was a smokescreen to divert nosy humans.
The place was quiet, but a series of familiar dings came from a room down the long white hall. Someone coughed. Someone else cried out in pain. Everything was hushed.
“I guess we follow the sounds,” she said.
Across from them were brown double doors with an EMPLOYEES ONLY sign. Behind them was the elevator they’d ridden, and to the left was another hall.
“Does it seem like a week since we left the car?” she asked, her voice quiet.
“Yup.”
A nurse stepped out of a room and spotted them. “Hello. Rune and Jack?”
“Yes.” Rune shook the woman’s hand quickly. “How is Lex?”
“Come with me. The doctor will speak with you about the patient.” She marched down the hall, wasting no time. “Here you go.” The door made no sound when she pushed it open.
“Thank you.”
The nurse nodded and offered a quick smile, then pulled the door shut behind them.
Raze stuck his head around the curtain. His face was pale and his eyes bloodshot. He slipped toward them, his stare going to Rune.
“Lex?” she asked.
“She’s asleep. The doctor gave her something that knocked her out not long after we got here. Denim and Levi are with her.”
She pushed back the curtain, her gaze going automatically to the twins. They looked up at her at the same time. Denim’s scar stood out vividly, his eyes liquid green fire in a face that had gone two shades paler since th
e last time she’d seen him.
Levi looked confused. “Why, Rune?”
She closed her eyes for a long moment, gathering her courage, then looked at Lex. The girl’s body seemed shrunken, barely making a lump beneath the sheets.
“He’s mocking us,” she said, when she could talk. Whoever he was.
Lex was covered with bites and cuts. Her flesh was jagged and torn, bruised and swollen, her features misshapen. Silver restraints had melted into her skin, leaving deep burn furrows behind once they’d been removed.
Her attackers had been ready for her and no matter how good a fighter Lex was, silver made her just another woman, vulnerable to evil.
Look familiar, Rune?
Bags hung on poles at the head of her bed. One of them contained blood.
“She lost so much blood,” Raze said, watching her. He was too controlled, his voice flat. Rune recognized the signs. He was beyond rage.
All of them were going to need a piece of Lex’s attackers.
She walked to Lex’s side and stared down at her, forcing herself to look at the battered girl. She wanted to hold her hand or stroke her hair but was afraid to touch her.
“I’m sorry, Lex,” she whispered. They’d all promised to protect her. They’d failed.
She didn’t realize Ellis had entered the room until she heard sobbing and looked up to find him huddling against the wall, his fists to his eyes.
“Ellie…” She went to him, pulling him into her arms. “We’ll get the fucking monsters, baby. I swear.”
He looked at her. “It’s my fault. I should never have left her.”
“You couldn’t have known. No one could have.” Except her, maybe. She’d had the clues.
But he shook his head. “No. When I was leaving her house I saw a strange car go slowly by. I knew there was something off about that car. I felt it. I even made a joke about it.” The expression in his eyes was one she was familiar with. Unbelievable guilt. “But I left. Just fucking left.”
She didn’t want to see him that way. Not Ellis. He couldn’t lose the part of himself that made him better than the rest of them. “Don’t, Ellie.”
He walked to the bed, his hand too tight around hers. He forced himself to look, and though she wanted to pull him back she knew better. He began shaking the moment he saw her battered face. “Oh no. Oh God, no.”
