by Laken Cane
“Where, baby?”
“Where I went. Brasque said it’s time for you to come there.”
“I…” Rune had no idea what to say. She could barely speak past the taste of fear on her tongue.
“Rune,” Fie hissed. “Take me with you. When you go, you take me with you. It’s where I belong, too.”
Strad jerked Rune away from the child, as though the kid might somehow carry her away to another world right then. “She’s not going anywhere,” he growled, “and neither are you.”
And Fie began to cry, frightened by his tone.
Or maybe she was just disappointed by his words.
Chapter Five
She walked to Eugene’s office as dawn broke, nothing but a low humming sound in her exhausted mind. She’d been working a lot of nights—not because she wanted to, but because that was just the way things had been happening.
Working at night, sleeping for a couple hours during the day before she was called out on another job. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.
But the thought of rotting and Fie’s horrible physical changes—as well as her chilling, portentous words—were pushing her toward the edge. Maybe the berserker was right. Maybe she wasn’t completely healed.
Because she was fucking tired.
She pushed her palm against her stomach, wondering if she felt too much give there. Maybe the rotting had already started.
Shit.
“Rune,” Eugene said, motioning her into his office. Then he frowned. “Are you ill?”
She realized right then that she wasn’t ready to bring him in on the Other sickness. She just wasn’t. She’d talk to him about it the next day, or the day after.
She dropped into the chair in front of his massive desk. “I’m fine.”
He studied her for a moment longer. “Would you like some coffee?”
“Let’s talk about Bill Rice. That’s why you wanted to see me, isn’t it?”
He nodded, slowly, then focused on her words. “Yes. Bill. You’ve been working—perhaps too much. Are you feeling up to checking into Bill’s circumstances?”
Eugene had noticed something off with Bill Rice weeks ago and had convinced her that spying on Bill would be a good idea. Maybe he was in trouble and too proud to ask for help.
Whatever was going on, she’d promised to check into it—then she’d gotten…sidetracked.
Being decapitated could put a girl behind schedule.
“I said I would. Where is he now?”
“I sent him to check into a situation in Dormer.” He glanced at his watch. “He’ll be back in a few hours. I’ll text you when he gets back into town.”
“All right. I’ll tail him tonight.”
Bill went nowhere but home that night. She stood outside his apartment, waiting to see if he’d leave again, but gave up after two hours. She’d follow him to keep him out of trouble, but she wasn’t standing outside his house all fucking night.
She texted Eugene the information and decided, as she did every night, to check Wormwood for Gunnar.
Just in case.
It was just a little after midnight. If nothing unexpected happened, she might actually be able to go home and finish off the night in her bed.
With the berserker.
She jogged to her car, checked the glove box for Baby Ruth candy bars, and then headed for Wormwood.
She took a deep breath and caressed the decapitation scars on her throat, unable to shake the feeling of heavy depression that squeezed her brain.
Something was coming.
Or maybe it was already there.
“Gunnar,” she muttered, somewhat comforted by the sound of her voice. “I’m just worried about that crazy fucking ghoul.”
Yeah. That’s what it was.
She wandered Wormwood aimlessly, then finally placed the candy on a large rock and walked away from the graveyard. She hadn’t even expected to find Gunnar.
She just wasn’t a glass half full type of person.
Too unsettled to go home, she drove into the city, left her car in the lot of an open all night grocery chain, and began to run.
Fast.
Her speed was crazy. She missed a lot while shooting through the air like a wayward bullet, but she worked off some excess energy. Some fear.
She saw things as she raced by—two women fighting, a man stabbing a tree and screaming, and when she neared Willowburg, a car with its engine running, lights on, one door open. No one inside.
She should have investigated, perhaps, all those things.
But she didn’t. She turned back toward Spiritgrove, a little slower, her mind slightly less anxious.
She’d been through shit before. Bad shit. And she always came back. Always triumphed over the pain.
She’d be okay.
So she ran through the night, suddenly eager to reach home. The twins and Lex and Ellie were there.
The berserker was there.
She took a different route back to her car. She came up behind the grocery, thinking about Strad, and Owen, and Z…
Always Z.
And she ran right past the dead man nailed to the building before her mind grabbed on to what her eyes had seen.
“Son of a bitch,” she murmured.
River County’s serial killer had been quiet for a while. She’d begun to believe he’d moved on to other hunting grounds.
She’d been wrong.
The victim had been slashed so brutally he was almost too shredded to identify as human, or male, or anything other than bloody meat.
She pulled her cell from her pocket and told the Annex night duty to send the lab. She left Bill a voicemail because he didn’t answer his phone, then called Eugene.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I’m home for once. I hope this is not something someone else could have handled.”
She lifted an eyebrow. Eugene wasn’t often cranky. “Bill didn’t answer his phone, so I called you. I found a body nailed to the back of Garvey’s Grocery.”
“Our guy?”
“Yes.”
He cursed under his breath. “Call the Annex and have—”
“Already did. I was just giving you a heads up.”
“Next time, phone Elizabeth first. She’ll know whether or not it’s worth disturbing me.” He hung up.
“Asshole,” she muttered, and pulled her keys from her pocket. There was a penlight attached, and she used it to study the victim.
He was the same as the others. Brutalized, killed, nailed.
Their killer was one angry dude.
She called Bill again. The serial killer was his baby, and no one was more interested than he was.
Finally, he answered, his voice groggy and thick.
“Dammit, Bill,” she said. “Since when don’t you answer your phone?”
“I just did, didn’t I?” he growled.
She took her phone away from her ear to stare at it for a long moment. “What the fuck is up with everybody tonight?” she asked.
“Rune.” He cleared his throat, and she heard him take a long drink of something. “I apologize. What happened?”
“Your serial killer happened. I just found another body.”
“Where?” His voice was sharper, more alert.
“Garvey’s Grocery.” She hesitated, then, “Are you okay, Bill?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” But his words were too stilted, too overly casual. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know,” she lied. “The whole city is fucked up tonight.”
“I’ll be there in half an hour. Go home, get some rest.” Then it was his turn to pause. “Be with your people, Rune.”
He didn’t say it, but the unspoken words echoed in her mind.
Be with your people, Rune.
While you still can.
Chapter Six
The house was silent when she got home, silent except for Lex, who wasn’t the best sleeper. She wandered the house, her steps light and
quick, despite the darkness. But then, Lex lived in darkness.
The others were asleep, she supposed. If they’d gotten called out she hadn’t been notified, so most likely they hadn’t been called out.
The berserker was in her bed.
She undressed quickly and climbed in with him, shivering as he pulled her against his solid warmth.
“Okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hungry?”
She smiled against his chest, then darted out her tongue to taste his smooth flesh. “Yeah.”
He ran his hand over her back, saying nothing.
But she knew he was hungry, too.
“Berserker.”
“Yes.”
“The month I was out of commission…”
“What about it?”
“Did you try to get my bite?”
His hand went still and he stiffened. “Rune.”
She shrugged. “The addiction is a bad son of a bitch. Not many could have resisted.”
“You don’t trust me.”
She swallowed. “I’d trust you with my life.”
“Your life doesn’t mean much to you.”
She heard the pain in his voice and closed her eyes. “I care about my life more than I used to, Berserker. I don’t care for my immortality.”
“You didn’t ask if the twins or Lex tried to feed.”
“I…” Dammit. No, she hadn’t.
“Fucking addiction.” His voice was hoarse. Harsh.
So despairing.
She didn’t ask him how she was supposed to trust a man whose addiction would shatter anything but his need. His addiction was her fault. He’d become addicted by saving her life.
She owed him.
But that didn’t mean she had to completely trust him.
Not with her heart.
That was going to take a while.
He pushed her to her back and loomed over her, his long hair sliding over his shoulders. “Talking about it won’t change things. I’ll fix it, Rune.”
But they both knew the addiction wasn’t fixable.
“You said you love me.”
“Yeah?”
She shook her head. “Why? If not for the addiction, why?”
Owen’s words echoed in her mind. “You’re hot, you’re a freak, and I dig you…”
Strad stared down at her for a long, breathless moment. Then, he smiled. He kissed her lips, gently. “Because you’re the best person I’ve ever known. Because when I’m not with you, I need to be. Because from the beginning, I wanted you. Because no matter what the reasons, being with you is the only time I’m…” He paused, then lifted his fist to hit his chest. “The only time I’m not the berserker.”
She wasn’t sure if his words made it better, or worse.
She put her palms on either side of his face and pulled him to her, reveling in the taste of his lips, his vitality.
She knew what he meant.
It was the same way for her. When she was with him, like that, in bed, in darkness, alone…she was peaceful.
Quiet.
“Oh,” she whispered, pulling away. “You’re how I find the silence?”
She didn’t know what that might mean. She only knew it was the truth.
She’d come far, and she ended up finding the silence in the berserker’s fucking arms.
Whatever that meant.
And yeah, it was crazy. They were both too messed up to find peace with each other. Weren’t they?
“Whatever,” she said. “Fuck it.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Fuck it.”
But his sorrow was as thick as syrup. Thick enough to taste.
She ran her hands over his massive shoulders and down his back. There was only ever that one moment.
Whatever else that came would come.
It really was out of her control.
“I am yours, Rune,” he said.
“I know. And I’m your addiction.”
“I’ll prove myself to you.” Then, he hesitated. “I’m stronger than my addiction. I’m stronger than your bite.”
“I almost believe you,” she said. “But we both know—”
“Be quiet,” he said, softly. Tenderly.
“Make me,” she answered, smiling.
So he did.
What woke her up four hours later wasn’t anything out of the ordinary—screams in her dream. Someone was always screaming her dreams.
But when she startled awake, her heart beating with chunky, painful irregularity against her damaged chest, the screams continued.
They were real.
Screams of laughter.
Evil. Wicked.
Doom.
I know you.
How did I forget?
She leaped from the bed, only then realizing the berserker was not beside her. She shot out her claws and raced into the living room, almost knocking Lex over in her rush.
“What the fuck is it?” she asked. “Who is it?”
But she knew.
Levi and Denim ran into the room, half-dressed, wild-eyed, blades ready.
Ellis peeped around the corner, a hand to his chest.
The screams of laughter reverberated off the walls, strident and mind-numbing. Horrifying.
And no one was there.
The crew stood back to back, circling slowly, ready to fight an enemy they could not see.
“What is it?” Ellis cried.
“Stay put, Ellis,” Levi ordered.
“But what is it?”
“Better question,” Denim said. “Where is it?”
Rune probed the ceiling with her narrowed gaze, then glanced at Lex. “Lex,” she said, quietly, “what are you getting?”
“Oh, Rune,” Lex whimpered. “Oh, Rune.”
Rune withdrew her claws and yanked Lex to her. “What the fuck is it?”
Lex, her crazy eyes dancing, put her palms over her ears. “She has something that belongs to you. Oh it’s…no. She has your blood.” Then—
“Where’s Strad? Ah…” She drooled, which scared Rune more than her words had. Until they sunk in.
She let go of Lex, threw back her head, and screamed at the ceiling. “Berserker!”
Lex fell to the floor, and Ellis shot into the room. He grabbed her collar and dragged her into the hallway.
“Berserker,” Rune screamed, again.
Maybe she was still dreaming. Maybe she was asleep. Maybe…
“Rune,” Levi said, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. “The berserker doesn’t fucking laugh.”
She began shivering and was unable to stop. Her teeth chattered as she tried to get the words out. “No. But Damascus does. And Strad…”
“What, Rune?”
“Strad is gone,” she whispered.
And Rune needed her fucking berserker.
Chapter Seven
Strad had left her a text message after he’d slipped from her bed.
I’ll be back.
That was all.
She called his phone a dozen times, but got no answer.
So she paced, furious. Helpless.
Neither Eugene nor the Annex had contacted him. She’d called to check.
“What does that bitch want?” she muttered, pacing back and forth, her fists clenched. “Blood? What does that mean?”
“Maybe she’s building her own monsters,” Denim murmured.
She stopped abruptly. “Shit.”
“What is it?” Owen asked.
Ellis had called the rest of the crew in, and all of them sat or stood in her kitchen, waiting for some concrete orders. Something they could do.
All but Jack. He hadn’t answered Ellis’s summons.
“Fie told me she went away when she was trapped in the net. She said I belonged there. She went to Damascus’s world—I know it.” She grabbed her jacket off the back of a kitchen chair. “I have to talk to her. Something is waiting there.”
“Rune!” Ellis grabbed her arm. “You can�
�t want to go there. You can’t. No matter what anyone says, this is where you belong.”
“Maybe it is, Ellie, but that cunt is making herself known for a reason. If she’s going to keep messing with us, I might belong there for just a little while.” Her smile stretched her face, and she knew when Ellie backed away, his eyes wide, that it wasn’t a nice smile.
She didn’t give a fuck. She had to meet the threat head on. She had to chase it, catch it, and beat it to a bloody pulp.
Because she was scared, so scared, and she’d be damned if she’d let that fear control her.
If the witch wanted her, she was eventually going to find a way to get her.
And if that happened, Rune was going to make her regret it.
“I have no idea how to get there,” she muttered. And she realized when relief touched her that a big part of her really, really didn’t want to figure it out.
“You know how,” Lex said, her voice dull, her eyes sluggish.
She’d had some kind of seizure when the laughter had pinged off the walls of the house, and coming out of it had been a long, hard process.
Rune knelt down beside her chair. “How, Lex? Reverence? Orson’s house?”
“No. Not Reverence.”
“Where?”
Lex sighed, the breath floating from her lips hot and thick and smelling of wood smoke.
Rune didn’t understand her reluctance, and she didn’t care what caused it. “Lex. Where?”
“Wormwood,” Lex whispered, finally. The words hung in the air, ominous and heavy.
Rune nodded and got to her feet. It was a start. “First Fie, then the graveyard. Maybe I’ll find that fucking ghoul while I’m at it.”
And though her words were cool and a little flippant, not one person in that room would have been fooled by her tone.
Rune was hurting, and they knew it.
She grabbed her phone and keys off the kitchen table. “Where the fuck is Jack,” she muttered, and punched in his number for the sixth time.
“We’re going to take care of Annex business,” Raze said. “You do what you need to do.” When she didn’t acknowledge his words he clasped her shoulder. “Rune.”
“Yeah?” she looked at him, a little dazed. “What?”
“You call us when you need us. Don’t go anywhere without your crew.”
She took a deep breath, then nodded. “I wouldn’t think of it.”