Series Firsts Box Set

by Laken Cane

  Amy clapped her hands, laughing. “He won’t hurt you, Rune. I’ve talked to him before. He likes to pretend he’s all mean and shit. But oh my God.”

  Both Rune and Strad looked at the girl to see what she was so excited about.

  She pointed at them. “You two…you kind of look alike. All that wavy black hair, big blue eyes…you look the same, in a different way.”

  Rune gaped.

  “Oh not like family, or anything,” Amy continued, “but like…warriors from the same village. Imagine if you had babies. They’d be gorgeous.”

  It wasn’t bad enough that Strad insulted her with pretty much every word he’d spoken, but Amy had just made it worse. As she debated the merits of explaining to Amy that she wasn’t worried about Strad hurting her—he should have been worried about her hurting him—Amy’s father ambled back into the room.

  Or tried to. Rune and the berserker were blocking his entrance. And he had a nurse right behind him.

  Rune sighed and put her shivs away. “Another time, Berserker.”

  “Looking forward to it.” His voice was a deep rumble, and now that Amy had mentioned it, he really wasn’t a bad-looking man. But…she didn’t like him.

  She carried her anger to Z’s room. Everyone she passed hugged the wall and stared at her with cautious eyes. She was not displeased. Amy’s “he won’t hurt you” still echoed in her mind.

  Little bitch.

  Z’s bed was empty.

  She went to the nurse’s station, grabbing the arm of a busy guy in scrubs. “Where’s Z?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Zeveriah Kader. Where the f—” She bit the word off and started over. “Where is he?”

  He looked regretful. “He signed himself out an hour ago.”

  Dammit. “Thanks.”

  She strode toward the exit, punching in his number as she walked.

  He answered on the first ring and didn’t wait for her to speak. “I am too fine to be lying there in that ugly-ass hospital gown, sweet thing. I had to get out of there.”

  She snorted. “Where are you?”

  “I’m getting cleaned up, then I’m going to the clinic to see Lex and make those boys take a break.”

  “They won’t leave her, Z.”

  “You headed that way?”

  “Soon as I check in with Mitch.”

  “See you there.” He clicked off.

  Her phone buzzed. “Mitch. I was just calling you.”

  “Can you stop in at the office for a few minutes, Rune? I know you’re anxious to visit little Lexi.”

  She was surprised by his magnanimity. “I’ll swing by on my way to the clinic. How are things?”

  “There have been a couple calls, but RISC took care of them. Nothing major, except…”

  “What?”

  “I’ll talk to you when you get here.”

  “See you in a few.”

  She had a bad feeling.

  But for her, having a bad feeling was a very frequent occurrence.

  She strode toward the exit, sliding her phone back into her pocket. The automatic doors opened and she started to walk through them, but a loud voice stopped her.

  “Oh my God!”

  She whirled around, a hand on the shiv at her side. Only a woman and small boy stood behind her, and neither of them looked especially dangerous.

  Staring with wide eyes, the woman dug into her handbag and came out with a pen and a second later, a piece of paper. “You’re Rune Alexander from Shiv Crew!”

  Mystified, Rune glanced around as the doors slid open and a couple walked in. “Is something wrong?” she asked the lady. “Do you need help?”

  “Can I have your autograph? Oh, and can I have a picture with you?” The woman shook her cell at the couple. “Can one of you take a picture of me and Rune?”

  The man took her cell. “Sure, sure. If you’ll return the favor.”

  Fucking what? Rune, still trying to wrap her mind around what was happening, stood with the woman and let the man take her picture.

  It was at that moment the berserker chose to make an appearance. She groaned, understanding what would happen before it actually did.

  “My autograph,” the lady with the kid cried when Rune turned to run.

  Fuck me. Rune ground her teeth. She was blushing furiously. She could feel it, and that made her blush harder. Strad stood with his arms crossed, a half smile on his hateful face.

  Four new people, one of them a nurse, joined the crowd.

  “Oh my God,” the woman screamed again, catching sight of Strad. “It’s another one of them! Please, let me get a picture of you and Rune together? Oh, and then me with you?”

  “I have to get to work,” Rune said. “But I’m sure Mr. Matheson will be more than happy to take care of you.”

  He met her gaze. His own was dark, but amused.

  She took a quick second to gloat as the little knot of people converged upon Strad, and then she got the hell out of there.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  She arrived at the office, still smiling over the berserker getting stuck with the autograph seekers and reeling over the fact that people wanted their autographs.

  Mitch had been busy making them some sort of dark celebrities, and he was pretty damn good at it.

  She sat on the corner of Ellis’s neat desk. “Lex isn’t doing very well. Mitch asked me to come by, and then I’m going to go see her.”

  He turned away from his monitor, his unsmiling face lined with worry. “I’ll go too.”

  “Do you want a ride?”

  He nodded. “Seeing her like that…”

  “I know. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  At the door she stopped and told him about the incident at the hospital. “I still can’t believe it.”

  He grinned, his eyes a little brighter than before. “That’s fabulous!”

  “Yeah. Right. Wait until they’re asking you for photos and autographs.”

  “They won’t want mine. I’m not like the rest of you.” He didn’t sound envious, just matter-of-fact.

  “You’re better than the rest of us,” she said, and went to talk with Mitch.

  Mitch pointed to a chair when she entered his office. “Have a seat, Rune. First of all, I want to let you know we’re doing everything we can to find the man who attacked Alexis.” He shook his head, his face mournful. “Terrible thing, that. Just terrible”

  He’d hung a couple of new pictures. One was a photo of him shaking hands with the governor. Jeremy stood on one side of them, the police director on the other.

  The other was an enlarged, framed photo of Shiv Crew, standing onstage at River Run Hall.

  “Like it?” His smile was proud.

  She really did. “Yeah. It’d be better if Ellie were in it, but it’s awesome.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” Still smiling, he opened a large envelope and pulled out a photo. “I had one made for each of you.”

  She took the photo, staring down at a moment captured about a million years ago. Things could change in an instant. Lex had looked so happy, so vital.

  He must have seen the change in her expression. “I’ll catch you up and let you get out of here so you can visit Lex.” He cleared his throat. “There is some evidence that the Dark Others have been brought here.”

  She shivered as a cold chill ran down her spine. “For what?” But then, even before he opened his mouth, she knew what he was going to say.

  “To destroy our Others,” he told her.

  Suddenly it all made sense. “COS is behind it. They have to be.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “What makes you think they’re here to take out the River County Others?”

  “The fight at Wormwood, for one. After you left, the vampires who didn’t run were wiped out.”

  She frowned. “What? Shifters can’t kill vampires in a fight.”

  “Maybe not in a fair fight.”

  She clasped her photo wit
h shaking hands. “What the fuck did they do?”

  “The shifters had guns hidden inside Wormwood. Once the vampires were deep inside, the Dark Others took human form and shot them full of silver. Once incapacitated, the vampires were staked. Destroyed.”

  Others killing Others. “Why?” she asked. “Why would Others let humans hire them to kill their own kind?”

  “Same reason humans kill their own kind,” he said. “Greed. Evil.” He shrugged. “Because they can.”

  She sat down. “I have to tell you something.”

  For some reason, he didn’t look surprised. “I’m listening.”

  “I think I know who hired the Dark Others.” It took her only a few minutes to tell him everything she knew about Preston. She rubbed her temples when she was finished and gave him time to absorb the information.

  “You kept a lot from me,” he said at last.

  “Yes. I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”

  “Now you are?”

  She shrugged. “Now I have no choice.”

  He let it go. “Preston. You have no idea who he might be?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a suspicion?”

  She frowned and stared at him for a long moment. “I said I didn’t. If I knew who the bastard was I’d have him in custody.”

  He stood. “Go check on Alexis. I’ll update you when I can.”

  She stood, feeling lighter after sharing the burden. At the door she turned back to him. “You’d better not be Preston, dude.”

  He crossed his arms. “Ditto.”

  Touché, Mitch. Touché. But she said only, “Karin Love…”

  He nodded, slowly, and leaned back in his chair. “She’s being questioned.”

  “Like that will do any good.”

  “You never know.”

  “It’s hard to believe she could be running them from death row.”

  He shrugged. “Stranger things have certainly happened. It could be…” He hesitated, as though afraid of saying something that was mere conjecture.

  “Go on.” She leaned against the doorframe.

  “She could have groomed one of her followers. Prepared them for this. They want to rid the world of Others and…” Again, he shrugged. “Karin Love is nothing if not determined. And smart.”

  “Oh my God.” She clutched her photo, hard. “Please tell me you don’t suspect the twins.”

  They stared at each other for a long, silent moment. Finally, he dropped his gaze, tapping his desk with nervous fingers. “No, not really.” He looked at her once again. “But it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  He sighed. “We have to consider everything, Rune. That Karin might somehow conduct the Dark Others from death row seems pretty damn improbable too.”

  “You have to trust me now, Mitch. The twins are not involved with COS. I don’t know who the fuck is or why the Others she spent her life tormenting would be deliberately involved with her.” She shook her head. “That’s…crazy. But I know the twins. They are not the enemy.”

  He smiled. “I know you need everything to make sense, Rune, but sometimes…” He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s just not going to.”

  “Fuck the Dark Others. After I check on Lex I’m taking the crew and I’m hunting the sons of bitches down.” She smiled and wondered if it looked as cold as it felt. “I’ll keep some of them alive for questioning.”

  But Mitch was already shaking his head. “You’re to wait for the orders, Rune. I have to speak with Rice and Jeremy. I’ll call you and let you know what to do.”

  She turned away. “Later, Mitch.”

  “Rune—”

  But she ignored him and strode down the hall to fetch Ellis.

  Her phone buzzed as she reached his desk. “Yeah?”

  It was Denim. “Lex is bad, Rune, but she’s awake. And she’s asking for you.”

  “On my way, baby.”

  “Hurry.”

  She drove like a maniac, terrified she wouldn’t make it in time.

  Ellis held on to the edge of his seat, his face pale. “Let her be okay,” he said, over and over.

  “She’ll be okay, Ellie.”

  He nodded, then pulled his cell from his pocket. “Levi.”

  Rune glanced at him, surprised. She hadn’t realized Ellis had become close with the twins. But then, Levi had comforted him in the clinic hall. The twins were good men. Her earlier worries about their association with COS had floated away before she’d even understood they were there. Fuck Mitch for putting that shit in her head.

  “How about you?” Ellis asked, his voice low. “How are you? And Denim.”

  Ellis was a little mother hen. As soon as he’d hung up with Levi she murmured, “I love you, Ellie.”

  His face was not quite so pale. “I know. I love you too.”

  “How are they doing?”

  “You know.”

  “Yeah.”

  When they arrived, Ellis barely waited for her to stop the car before he was out and running to the door. She followed him, her heart beating harder and faster with each step. The closer she got to Lex, the more desperate she felt. It hummed through her veins, thundered through her bloodstream.

  She had to save the girl.

  Lex couldn’t die.

  Fuck no.

  So she did what she always did when she was terrified out of her mind. She got mad.

  Denim was pacing the hall in front of Lex’s room. “Come. Hurry.”

  Rune jogged into the room and went straight to the bed, ignoring everyone but Lex. The blind girl lay like a faded rose upon her pillow.

  As though she sensed Rune beside her, she opened her eyes. Her black, crazy eyes. When she’d been healthy, her eyes had been shiny and glasslike, but now they were dull and somehow hot. And the crazy was gone—her eyes barely moved.

  She was a child, a mysterious Other, a girl who’d known too much pain and too little happiness.

  And she was dying.

  Rune took her hands, flinching when a tear slid with tormenting slowness down Lex’s face. “Damn you, Lex. I won’t let you die.”

  “I need to know you’ll take care of them,” Lex whispered.

  “No,” Rune said, her voice harsh. “No, I won’t. I’ll throw them to the wolves. I’ll kill them myself. I’ll…”

  Lex’s lips twitched as she tried to smile. Even that small movement had to have hurt her. One of the bites on her face cracked and began to seep a pink, watery fluid. “Shhh, Rune. Everyone has to die.”

  “Not you. Not now.” Behind her someone sobbed, but she couldn’t stop staring into Lex’s eyes. Couldn’t look away, because if she did, Lex would slip out of her grasp. She made her live by sheer will alone.

  “Promise…” Lex whispered.

  Rune shook her head, her throat too thick to allow words.

  “Promise her,” one of the twins yelled. “Tell her what she wants to hear.”

  “Hush, Levi,” Lex said in her weak, tiny voice. “Give me and Rune a moment alone.”

  They wouldn’t go against her wishes for anything, and in seconds, Rune heard the door swish shut behind them.

  “I’m going to die, Rune. That’s how it is. And you can’t save everyone.” Again, Lex smiled, her wounds protesting the movement.

  Rune’s heart was going to explode. The pain was too much. Moaning, she lifted her hands and raked her nails down her face.

  “You find the silence through violence and sex, Rune. Know how I get the silence?”

  “God,” she screamed. “God.”

  “Rune.”

  She forced herself to look down at Lex, forced herself to say the words that she feared would release the girl. “I’ll take care of them. Forever.”

  Her blood ran like teardrops from her deep scratches, and fell upon Lex’s ravaged face.

  “Oh,” Lex whispered. “That feels like ice. Rune, what did you do?”

  Her blood. Her blood…

 
As she watched, her blood puddled in one of the craters on Lex’s face, then was forced out to slip down her skin as the wound closed.

  As the wound healed.

  Rune gasped.

  Ellis leaned around her, staring down at Lex. “Rune, your precious, magical blood. She couldn’t take the human blood, couldn’t take the Other blood…but your blood…”

  He was right.

  “Guard the door,” she whispered.

  He didn’t question her, just ran for the door.

  “Rune?”

  “Hang on, baby. I might not be able to save everyone, but I can save you.”

  She pulled a shiv and without hesitation, sliced open her wrist. Fuck trickles of blood falling into wounds. Lex needed a truckload.

  “Lex, you said you trusted me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then open your mouth.”

  “What—”

  As soon as her lips parted Rune pressed her wrist, slippery with blood, against the girl’s mouth.

  Lex was an Other, but a type of Other no one seemed to understand. Just like Rune. She didn’t fight the blood but let Rune feed her without a whimper of distaste. And after a few seconds, Lex reached up to hold Rune’s arm steady, and she began to suck with hunger and strength.

  But for Rune each draw of blood from her wrist was agony.

  Can’t anything ever just be easy?

  She ground her teeth, then called for help. “Ellie…”

  She heard his quick footsteps but was finding it difficult to see. The room was dimming and swaying…or maybe she was swaying. Nausea hit her at the same time dizziness struck.

  But none of that was anything. That shit she could have borne. She was saving a life. Lex’s life.

  The pain was something more. She could handle pain. She needed pain—she craved it. But not that kind of pain.

  It grew bigger with each suck of Lex’s eager mouth. There was nothing she could compare it to. It consumed her, like a fire burning her from the inside out, burning through her flesh.

  If she could have, she would’ve taken her wrist from Lex’s mouth. She would have run screaming from the room.

  But she couldn’t speak, couldn’t see, couldn’t move.