by Laken Cane
All she heard was the sound of his breathing, gentle, soft. Then, “I can’t, Rune.” He hung up.
She closed her eyes. What the fuck was wrong with him?
“Rune?”
“Shit!” She swung around, her fangs dropping before she could control them, and stared into Ellie’s wide eyes.
He held a hand to his chest. “Are you okay?”
“You startled me, baby.”
“What’s wrong?” His worried expression changed to one of suspicion. “What is it?”
“It’s nothing. I got a call from Cruikshank, that fucking reporter. He’s trying to stir up trouble.” She hooked her arm through his and walked him back to the kitchen. “Are you spending the night?”
Ellis tightened his lips. “I don’t think I’d better.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
He shook his head. “It’s going to take time. I’m okay, but Levi…it’s going to take time.”
“Yeah. Don’t give up, Ellie. He needs you now more than ever. Even if he doesn’t realize it.”
“We need each other. It all just went so wrong, so quickly.”
“Let me know if there is anything I can do.”
“What you can do is be careful. No more wandering the streets alone, looking for trouble. I swear, Rune, you need a keeper.”
She grinned and headed back to the kitchen to finish her meal. A growing monster had to eat.
And she was growing. In every way.
She’d actually begun to think that she and her crew would get a quiet evening when her cell rang, and at that exact moment the night outside her house came alive with screams, gunshots, and blasts.
She answered her phone as she ran to the door and yanked it open. “Hello?”
“Rune,” Rice said, his voice grimmer than she’d ever heard it. “The slayers have arrived, and they are early. Weapon up, and try to stay alive. I need you.”
Chapter Forty-One
Outside was chaos.
The night lit up with fire, smoke, and disorienting shrieks that sounded like missiles coming from the sky.
People ran, and fell, and scrambled to get up again before their heads were sliced off or the constantly fired bullets found their brains.
The slayers, dressed in matching blood-red uniforms, cut people down as they ran. As they stumbled and fell and held up pleading palms against the sudden invasion.
The slayers kicked doors in and pulled people from their homes, executing some of them in the streets.
Rune watched it with horror, her body frozen, her mind unable to contemplate what was actually happening.
“We were lied to,” Lex said, snapping her out of it. “They weren’t waiting for the new moon.”
Rune turned to face the twins and Lex. “Are you ready for this?”
“More than ready,” Denim said.
“Eager,” Levi said, and smiled. It was maybe the first real smile she’d seen on him since his capture.
“Hell yes,” Lex said.
“Then go get every weapon you own. It’s going to be a long, hard night.”
Rune couldn’t wait for them. She released her claws, dropped her fangs, and shot out her doorway. She threw herself into the fray, targeting red-dressed slayers.
She cut through them like a slicing tornado, having little time to think as COS attacked the city.
Hundreds of slayers surprising the unprepared.
RISC and the River County Sheriff’s Department shouldn’t have been unprepared, but there it was.
COS had been smarter than those they sought to destroy. They were pretty sure they’d have a demon to control soon, and no matter what they did that night, they wouldn’t be punished. Their master would soon be a demon-possessed Karin Love. This was their last stand.
And it was fucking incredible.
A blonde woman with a handbag squashed protectively against her chest caught Rune’s gaze, just for a second.
She was mowed down, abruptly and in such surreal dramatic fashion that Rune never batted an eye. The blonde’s grip on her purse didn’t appear to loosen, even as her head went rolling down the sidewalk.
COS wasn’t only targeting Others—they were killing humans.
The city was on fire.
Rune battled her way through the sudden throngs of people, trying to guide her killing rage to the red-uniformed slayers. There were a few plainly dressed men shouting their allegiance to COS as they shot down ordinary citizens.
She went after them, too.
A few slayers came out of the shadowy, flickering flames riding horses, swords and guns given equal time, depending, most likely, on the slayer’s preference.
And it was then that she spotted the COS doctor who’d stolen her blood. He rode a huge, white horse, and there was no mistaking him, though he looked harder in the hazy smoke and moonlit shadows.
He forced his screaming mount to a halt as he squeezed his dick with his left hand and the trigger of a gun with his right.
Long, stringy streams of semen arced from his body as he killed and masturbated, surrounded by murderous men.
He gave a last look around, then turned his horse and sprinted away, other mounted men at his back.
His face was frozen in cruel lines, COS depravity stamped on his features. She was sure if she followed him, she’d find Horner.
But she lost sight of the doctor as she continued to fight the slayers, unsure if she made a dent in the packed, heaving streets. She killed one slayer and another took his place.
That so many of them had managed to sneak into River County was staggering. That so many had managed to keep such a secret was impossible.
Yet they had.
She fought back to back with the county’s human law enforcement, with the Moor’s armed citizens, and though she didn’t spot them, with her crew.
They were there.
But the slayers…there were just so many of them.
Then, the Others came.
The vampires came.
A wolf streaked past her, then leaped and sank his fangs into the throat of a slayer whose eyes were red and wild, his lips pulled back to bare his teeth. They appeared mad, the slayers, every single one of them, as though they’d taken drugs to gear up for the fight.
When a vampire dropped a slayer who was inches away from slicing off her head, she realized she might not mind the vampires so much, after all.
And how could she? She was one of them.
She drove her claws through the chest of one of the few female slayers and worked her way to where the doctor had disappeared.
Rice had shown her three likely places from which the church would call their demon, and she was going for the closest one.
She couldn’t let her county birth a COS-controlled demon. Zombies still roamed the countryside and the cities, searching for living food, but they were babies compared to COS and their threat.
A zombie apocalypse seemed far, far away.
The demon invasion, that was close.
She ran through the streets, and they thinned out as she headed for the less populated part of town.
Bones and flesh and jellied blood crunched and squished beneath her boots but finally, the screams faded as she sprinted toward Hook Road. Please, please let them be there.
She ran with crazy speed, and when that wasn’t good enough, she ran faster.
But the area off Hook Road was empty.
“Fuck,” she screamed, and her voice echoed through the woods, bounced off the trees, and streaked off to join the screams of the besieged city.
She had to decide then—Willowburg or Hawthorne.
And though Hawthorne continued to be a troublesome place, she chose Willowburg. It was so much more…Otherly.
So she ran.
The streets were clogged with humans and Others and stalled, burning vehicles. There were houses aflame as well. And trees, and…
People.
She dodged a burning car with a scr
eaming man trapped inside—he was trapped not by the flames but by four slayers who brandished guns and leaped at the car, laughing at the victim as he watched them through the windshield.
“Assholes,” she growled, and delayed her run to Willowburg long enough to send the four COS members to hell.
She yanked open the car door and pulled the man out. “Run,” she said, but he fell to his knees, staring at her with wide, shocked eyes.
She left him kneeling on the road, his face stark with terror, hoping he’d find his way, somehow, to safety.
When she found Horner, she’d need her crew to help her fight him. And it, if he called the motherfucking demon.
COS had planned carefully for this night and her crew was otherwise engaged.
But there were two others she could use.
She reduced her speed and pulled out her cell to call Cree. With the two birds, she could manage.
Cree answered after three rings. “Rune, I can’t—”
“Shut up and listen,” Rune said, her voice uneven as she jogged. “There’s a hill close to the clinic in Willowburg. I think Horner is there now trying to call his demon. Grab Fin and meet me.”
Cree was silent.
“Cree, do not betray me. You swore you’d help with COS.”
Cree sighed. “We’re not in River County.”
“What?” She sprinted through the woods, which appeared to be the only quiet place in the entire county. There was no screaming, no burning, no explosions. But that peace wouldn’t last. As soon as she came out on the other side, she was sure she’d find more mayhem.
“We left the county.”
“Where’s Fin?”
Cree’s voice went tight and unsure. “I don’t know. He left a few hours ago to get some supplies and hasn’t returned.”
“Cree, shift and get your ass back here. Call fucking Fin first. I swear to you—”
“I know, I know,” Cree muttered. “All right. But Horner isn’t—”
“Hurry the hell up,” Rune interrupted, and shoved her phone back into her pocket. Cree had left the county, which meant she’d never had any intentions of helping with the fight against COS.
Fucking birds.
The sounds of fighting came to her before she ran from the woods, jumped a ditch, and ran down the road leading to the Other clinic.
As she turned a bend in the road she spotted a lumbering truck ahead of her, its bed full of red-clothed slayers.
She looked up when she heard the distinct beating of wings in the air, the whoosh, whooshing as an uneasy ally came to help the good guys. But it wasn’t Cree.
Zooming toward the slayers like a deadly, golden angel, his wings darkly outlined against the moon, was Fin Lynch.
Rune shot her claws back out and went to help him kick ass, silently cursing Cree Stark for her totally predictable betrayal.
Chapter Forty-Two
Wolves streaked from the woods at the side of the road, joining Rune as she headed for the truck, the bird, and the fight ahead.
She recognized Amanda, the wolf who’d helped her when Llodra had staked her, and Chris, the one who’d fought her to become the wolves’ alpha.
The truck with the slayers was all that stood between her and the real target—Horner and his demon. She had to be right. Horner was in Willowburg.
An engine roared and a long, dark car careened around the curve ahead, tires squealing as its driver tried to maintain control. The car was fishtailing straight into a collision with the truck.
A slight breeze picked up and tossed a gamy, rich scent of cooking meat at her. It was only after her brain recoiled that she recognized the agonized smell of burning flesh and the acrid scent of singed hair.
Horrified screams drifted to her as well, and the closer she got to the small town the hazier the air became.
Willowburg was on fire.
She ignored the oncoming car and the truck of slayers as she quickly surveyed the area. The hill where Horner would be prepping for his gruesome ceremony should be just about…
“There,” she whispered, and leaving the slayers to Fin, the wolves, and the crazed car driver, she streaked up the magical hill.
She glanced behind her once when she heard someone crashing along in her wake, and caught a flash of three large, shaggy shifters running behind her. She didn’t recognize them.
She faced forward once again and gasped as she nearly lost her face to a tree. She sidestepped it at the last second and picked up her speed even more, until she was flying over the ground.
She started up the hill, not slowing. Be there, be there. Be there, you motherfucker.
And along with that, don’t let me be too late.
There were people on the hilltop—dark figures danced and twirled around a smoky fire, a mix of male and female voices discordant and gleeful as pale faces lifted to the moon.
Time slowed down to a crawl. It was as though no matter how fast she was, it wasn’t fast enough. All she heard was her breath, loud and strained, and the cool air whistling past her ears.
And on the hill, fuzzy, dancing figures, beckoning her on.
The slayers didn’t run when they saw her coming, but they scrambled for a small pile of weapons. Before even one of them could aim and shoot, Rune was upon them.
She’d shot her claws out and slashed the life from half of them before the shifters arrive to finish off the rest.
Then she dropped to her knees. One of the slayers lay with his right arm in the fire, and once again she breathed in the scent of cooking flesh. “He’s not here. He’s not here.”
She’d gambled on Horner choosing Willowburg, and she’d lost. The slayers on the hill were either placed there for a distraction or were some part of the ceremony to call the demon, but Horner was not there.
He was in Hawthorne. Fucking Hawthorne.
One of the shifters regained his human form and knelt down beside her. “Tell us what you need.”
She looked at him, slightly dazed. It was Michael from the Camp. “I thought Horner would be here, calling his demon. The only place left is in Hawthorne.” But even as she said it, she didn’t believe it.
He could be anywhere in River County. Rice’s circles on the map had been guesses. She stood, and Michael stood with her.
Slayer blood gleamed in the firelight, covering his face, his chest. “Tell me what you need,” he said, again.
“I need Levi.” She pushed a fist to her mouth. “I need fucking Levi. He can find Horner.” Maybe.
“Where did you see him last?”
“In the Moor. I have to get back to the Moor. And there’s just not enough time.” It seemed like hours since the street outside her house had erupted in violence and flames.
What if he’d already called his demon? What if, somehow, the vessel used to contain it was on its way to Karin Love?
Knowing it was a useless attempt but trying anyway, she called Levi’s cell. It went to voicemail. “Levi, I need you. I can’t find Horner. Please, if you get this, fucking call me.”
But COS was keeping her crew well occupied.
She heard the strident call of a bird and remembered Fin. He could fly her to Hawthorne in a few short minutes. “Fuck me,” she exclaimed, and left the wolves staring after her as she ran to Fin.
Once more on the road, she found the car in a ditch, still running. No one was inside. The truck was gone.
The white road leading to Willowburg was empty.
“Fin,” she screamed. “Fin Lynch!”
It wasn’t Fin who answered her call, but Cree.
She loomed in the sky like a dark, feathered monster, her wings batting the air as she came.
Rune ran to meet her. “Take me to Hawthorne, Cree. I have to find Horner.”
But Cree shifted and stood in her human form, hands on her hips. “Fin was here. I followed his scent.”
“Yeah, he was here. Last I saw, he was getting ready to take out a truck full of slayers. Now get me to Hawthorne. I’m
sure that’s where Horner is.”
But Cree shook her head. “I can take you there, but Horner isn’t in Hawthorne.”
“How do you know?” Then she gestured impatiently. There wasn’t time for those kinds of questions. Not yet. “Where the fuck is he?”
Cree smiled. “He’s on Spikemoss Mountain, sugar. Land of obsidian, realm of wings. If you’re ready to face him, I’m ready to take you there.”
Chapter Forty-Three
But when it came down to it, Rune hesitated. She knew better than to trust the birds—especially Cree. But the bird could get her to Horner a lot faster than she could drive or even run there.
She also needed to save her reserves for the battle—unless she fed. But there was no time. No time.
“Shift then, and get me to the mountain,” she said. She didn’t bother threatening Cree with death if the bird lied to her. That would have been a waste of breath.
Rune backed away as Cree shifted, then took a deep breath before climbing onto the bird’s back. It was like riding a horse with wings, only not as comfortable.
Or maybe like riding a dragon.
She leaned forward and dug her hands into whatever she could grab on to. She hoped like hell she wouldn’t fall off.
Somehow, riding the bird was more alarming than being held in those huge talons.
“Giddy-up, horsey,” she said, then her breath wheezed from her tight throat as Cree obeyed.
She couldn’t see anything below as she lay with the side of her face against the bird’s flesh and her eyes screwed shut, and maybe that was just as well. Cree’s vast wings cut through the air in a heavy, dreamy way, but propelled them onward with an unimaginable speed.
Smooth, silent, surreal.
When Cree had splintered her and delivered her to Horner, it’d been different. Her mind had been dark and filled with pain and fog.
Now…
She sat up, her breath leaving her as she surveyed the world around, ahead, and below her.
It was spectacular.
“God,” she whispered, but only to herself. The wind snatched the breath from her lungs and whipped her eyes, ran cold fingers through her growing hair, and slapped her face with icy disregard.