by Laken Cane
And they knew she’d do the same for them.
“It’s going to get worse,” Levi said, and Rune looked up to find him and Denim standing inside the doorway. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“I hope it gets better,” Bill murmured. “Go downstairs and get your uniforms and extra weapons. And stay together. Sylvia has a net, Rune, and you don’t want to be caught in it.”
She sneered. “A net can’t stop me. I’d like them to get close enough to try.”
She called Ellis and told him the ops outside the house were going to bring him and Kader to the Annex. “Pack enough for a few days for both of you,” she told him. “You might be here for a while.”
She wasn’t taking any chances with Kader or Ellie. They’d live at the Annex until Ben and Sylvia were caught.
They weren’t going to underestimate Ben Fleming or Lee Crane’s daughter. Most of all, they were not going to underestimate the power of hatred.
They had way too much to lose.
Chapter Twelve
Rune shrugged into a small, thin, but strong vest, then put a larger one over it. The only way the enemy would get to her heart would be to take off her vests, and that just wasn’t going to happen. Next, she fastened the straps of a small half face particulate respirator mask around her neck. Ben and Sylvia knew her weakness, and they would look for any opportunity to exploit it. She’d keep the mask close. Obsidian dust would take her out just as quickly as a splinter.
“I’m coming for you, Ben,” she muttered, strapping a blade to her ankle. She wasn’t going to stop until she found him. Time was running out for Roma, and if he got Jack, if he blinded Jack…
She shuddered.
River County’s human law enforcement was lending a hand. Both they and the Annex detectives were on the case, searching, taking calls, going door to door to question people, following up on the slightest leads.
There were no photos of Ben, but Rune had described the boy she remembered to a sketch artist. Copies were already circulating through the city.
“Alexander,” a woman called, and hurried toward her. She dangled a wristwatch in the air. “Isaac made a little something new for you. It’ll turn green and begin to beep if you’re anywhere near obsidian dust. The watch will pick up even a hint of the dust, so you should have time to get your mask on.” She handed Rune the watch and stepped back, beaming.
“Perfect,” Rune said, fastening the watch to her wrist. “I could kiss Isaac.”
The op giggled. “I’ll tell him you said so.”
Isaac had been head of munitions since the Annex had been built. He was smart, salty, and, as far as Rune knew, rarely left the building.
Luciana slipped into the room. “I can help.”
Rune didn’t ask her if she was well enough to work. If she hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have offered. “Thanks. Annex won’t let me outfit you until you’re official.”
Luciana shrugged. “I have my own weapons.” She paused and squinted at Rune. “Does that mean—”
“Yeah. If you want to work for the Annex, and for me, I’ll hire you on as Shiv Crew.”
“Thanks, Alexander. It’d be an honor to be one of your crew. And Leon?”
“Yeah.” They’d both proven themselves and she needed the extra muscle. “Leon, too.”
Luc smiled. “Awesome.”
“Where is Leon?”
“I’m not sure.”
Rune turned to watch her crew. Everyone was quiet, lost in his thoughts, choosing weapons. “The gargoyles have disappeared,” she said. “Neither one of them is answering when I call, and Bill can’t contact them either.”
“You think Ben got them?” Luc asked, incredulous.
“No. I don’t think he’d even want the gargoyles. They aren’t exactly close to my heart.”
“But,” Jack said, “they are powerful. Sylvia is going to need power. If she could get Gavin and Bellamy, she would. Who wouldn’t want a couple of gargoyles on their team?”
“She’s starting over,” Levi agreed. “Nabbing the gargoyles would be a hell of a start for a new group.”
“They don’t do us much good,” Raze grumbled.
“Maybe they finally gave up on Gage and took off,” Denim said.
“Maybe. I can’t see them leaving him behind—Eugene did promise to torture him if they left—but maybe they did.”
“Eugene sent trackers,” Levi said. “No one can hide from Annex trackers forever. They’ll find them.”
“Yeah,” Rune said. “Maybe they will--eventually. They might eventually find Roma, too. But we don’t have that much time.”
“Something’s going on with them,” Jack said, buckling on an ammo belt.
“Whatever it is,” Rune told them, “we can give zero fucks. We have to concentrate on Roma.”
“Absolutely,” Jack agreed.
“And where the hell is the assassin? We’re in need of more people, not fewer.”
They all looked at Strad, but he continued buckling on belts, sliding weapons into holsters, and ignoring them all.
He appeared oblivious to their stares, but Rune knew he was completely aware of everything around him. And in the next second, he proved it.
“When we’re fighting,” he said, his deep, quiet voice rumbling through the air, “I’ll stay with Rune. Jack, you’re with Will.”
“Will’s not here.” Jack buckled on his own vest. “We can take some of the Annex ops if we need more people. Eugene’s handing them out like cigars at a birth.” He looked at Rune. “I’ll make sure I’m never alone.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” Rune told him.
Strad walked to her and stood so close she could barely think. His scent was intoxicating not just to her, but to her monster. She wanted him. Badly.
She wanted to touch him. Needed to wrap her arms around him and cling like her life depended on her flesh being pressed against his.
She’d thought he was gone forever. Lost to her. And that only made her want him more.
“Will can keep Jack safe, Rune,” the berserker said.
His calm was unnerving, and she didn’t like it. “I can keep him safer.”
He shook his head. “The enemy can’t get near him if he’s with the assassin. Trust me.”
Gunnar’s words echoed through her memory. “The assassin has more power than even the berserker.”
Of course, he’d been insisting that she bed the assassin at the time. If she did, he’d told her, the assassin would protect her against any threat. But she didn’t want his protection for her.
She wanted it for her people.
She was pretty sure Jack wasn’t going to sleep with the assassin, but still…
“Jack,” she said. “Stay with Will. He…” She hesitated. “He can protect you better than we can.”
Jack shrugged, then his stare went to something behind her. When she turned, Will stood there, still and silent, watching.
But she got the feeling he was smiling.
“Don’t let anything happen to him,” she told the assassin.
He said nothing, but she could see his eyes glittering behind the mask.
“Rune,” Jack said, “Worrying about me is distracting you and will get you hurt. I’ll be fine.”
Rune nodded, but after Jack and the assassin drifted farther into the room, she turned to Strad. “I hope you’re very sure of Will. If Jack is taken, you and I will fight.”
Strad’s expression didn’t change. “You don’t want to fight me.”
And there it was.
The rage, the pain, the chaotic storm that had been swirling around him and inside him since she’d known him.
But that wasn’t all. Oh, no, that wasn’t all.
Something leapt through his eyes, something so dark and unspeakable that she, Rune Alexander, the immortal monster, stepped back in fear.
“Fuck me,” she whispered, hoarsely. “Who are you?”
But she kne
w.
He was the twisted berserker.
Her crew was suddenly there, blades in their hands, faces pale.
She wasn’t the only one who felt it—but she was the one who felt it the deepest.
She was going to give the command to kill him.
For one brief, unsure second, she understood he would have to die. But then the image of him holding Kader flashed through her mind and she held up her palms.
“It’s okay,” she told them. “He’s…okay.” Her legs trembled and her heart beat so hard and fast she was sure she’d either throw up or pass out, but she forced herself to breathe and finally, when she looked at him, she saw only the berserker.
Her berserker.
And deep inside, a grim voice whispered that they couldn’t have killed him anyway.
But he was right.
She didn’t want to fight him.
Strad had always been something to fear. She’d forgotten, for a while. Whatever had happened to him simply added to the part of him he’d hidden, and now it was magnified.
He didn’t even glance at the others. Not at the twins, or Raze, or Jack, who stood ready to try to take him out to defend her. Not Luc, who held guns in both hands, aimed at his head. Not even at the assassin, who slid closer and stood not at her back, but at the berserker’s.
Strad watched her. Only her.
“You’re afraid of me,” he murmured.
She tried to swallow past the dryness in her throat. “Is there reason to fear you?”
He dropped his stare from her eyes to her mouth, then back again. “Yes.”
She widened her eyes. “Dude—”
“I won’t hurt you,” he interrupted. “But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fear me.”
The longer he was there, the darker he got.
Oh yes, she felt it.
“Hello,” someone said, from the doorway.
She turned, relieved. “Nikolai. Is it dark already?” She’d lost track of time and somehow, the daylight had faded into darkness.
Another day was flying by them and Roma was still out there.
She didn’t wait for him to answer. Obviously it was dark, or Nikolai would have been asleep in her panic room. “Thanks. We can use all the help we can get.”
He patted the ID badge he wore around his neck. “Thank you for your trust. I’ll continue questioning every Other I can find. The wolves and vampires might hate each other, but there are so few of us now we tend to be closer.” He shrugged. “One of them will have seen something.”
“Let me know if you get anything. Anything at all.”
“Will do.”
When Rune’s cell rang, they all turned toward her, and there wasn’t a sound in the room. She closed her eyes for a second, then pulled her phone from her pocket.
“This is Rune,” she said, then hit speaker.
“You people are pathetic,” Ben said, his voice high and sharp. “Pathetic. I’d been led to believe I would be up against a formidable challenge in not only you, but the entire Annex.”
“You don’t sound happy, Benny,” Rune said.
“I’m bored,” he said, more calmly. “I could kill each and every one of you and you wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop me.”
“Because you hide like a little bitch and we’re not used to that. Any one of us would take you on, baby. Face to face. It won’t be long until we flush your cowardly punk ass out of hiding, and then you’re mine.”
“I look forward to being face to face with you, Rune Alexander.”
“I look forward to ripping your fucking head off.”
“You should be nicer to me,” he said.
And then he was gone.
She’d meant to beg him to trade. To convince him to trade. She’d meant to somehow force him to let her talk to Roma.
But she’d lost her temper and Ben had hung up.
“Fuck you,” she screamed. She lifted a fist to slam against her thigh but found her wrist caught in the berserker’s grip.
And for a second, she could not yank her arm away.
“She’s going to be okay.” He rubbed his thumb over her flesh.
She let her arm go limp and stared up at him. “Not if we don’t find her.”
“We will find her.” There was absolutely no doubt in his voice.
He’d brought back Reign.
He could help her bring back Roma.
He dropped her arm and then strode from the room without a single look back. But even when he was gone, the swirling darkness seemed to linger.
Chapter Thirteen
Ellie texted. “Kader’s asking for her mama. Come visit?”
“I’m going up to see Kader and Ellie,” she told Jack.
He nodded and hefted a blade as long as his arm. “We going out after?”
“Yes. The city is covered. I want to search Hawthorne.”
“Be nice if we had the gargoyles,” Raze said. “They could fly over.”
“Fuck the gargoyles,” she said, and went upstairs to see her child.
“Mama,” Kader called, when she caught sight of Rune. “Mama, okay?”
Rune swept her up off the floor, where she’d sat building something unrecognizable with blocks. “Mama, okay,” she murmured.
Ellis stood as well and dusted off his pants. “No word?”
“No.” Rune squeezed Kader as the kid tried to bite the respirator mask dangling around her neck. “Quit it, kid. That’s not candy.”
“Will they try to come after…” He glanced at the child, his eyes wide. “Her?”
“Maybe.” And she couldn’t breathe at the thought. She met Ellis’s stare. “And maybe you.”
He straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “Well, they won’t get us. We’re safe here. Aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“What about you?”
She nuzzled the baby’s head to keep from looking at him. “In the end, I’ll have to go to him. You know that.”
“I don’t want you to,” he said. “Let’s pack up and go away. We can get out of the country, wait for the Annex to catch them, then come back when it’s safe.”
But it would never be safe. Another country wouldn’t be safe.
There were always going to be enemies who wanted to hurt her, or her child, or those she loved. And that meant they had to make themselves as strong and invulnerable and ready as they could possibly get.
“You can’t deprive Kader of her mother,” he said, a little desperately.
“We’ve been up against much worse. If I can get to them, it’s over.” She looked at him. “You know me. You know what I can do. Don’t doubt me, Ellie.”
He shook his head. “I’m so afraid of losing you.”
She leaned her forehead against his. “You won’t.” Then she straightened and hefted Kader.
“Kader,” she said.
Kader stopped fiddling with the mask and looked up, her eyes huge and bright in her chubby little face. “Yes.”
“Let me see your fangs.”
Kader raised her lip and dropped her fangs immediately. They looked slightly bigger and a lot sharper. Even as Rune watched, Kader accidentally cut her tongue on the sharp edge of the left one.
Almost before it began to bleed, the wound closed.
“Kader, listen to me.”
Kader retracted her fangs and stared at Rune, solemn and still. “Okay.”
“Use those fangs to protect yourself if anyone tries to hurt you. Do you understand?”
Kader put her hands on Rune’s cheeks. “Bite.”
Rune swallowed. “Yeah.”
The child squirmed. “Watch me.”
Rune put her on the floor and looked at Ellie.
He shrugged and raised his eyebrows. “Are you going to show mama your blocks, sweetie?”
“Blocks,” Kader said, and tottered happily back to her toys.
Rune sighed. “Are you okay, Ellie?”
“I wish we could go home.”
“I know. Soon.”
“Mama,” Kader yelled. “Look.”
Rune grinned. “I’m looking, kiddo.”
Kader lifted her arm and pointed at the blocks. “Blocks.”
“Yup, blocks,” Rune agreed.
“Boom,” Kader said.
And one second later, the blocks simply…
Exploded.
As Rune and Ellis gaped, Kader laughed, delighted, and clapped her hands. “Boom,” she said. “Yup.”
Rune looked at Ellis. “Ellie. Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I’ve never seen her do that.” He couldn’t seem to take his wide-eyed stare off the baby. “I swear.”
“Can she do that to living things?” Rune asked. “To people?”
Ellis took Rune’s hand and together, they gazed at Kader, who was happily walking around the room, picking up tiny shards of the blocks. She ignored Rune and Ellis as she tossed the splintered remains into a pile in the center of the room.
“Boom,” she said. “Yes, okay.”
They heard quick footsteps, and then a man spoke from the little vestibule outside the door. “Everything okay in there?”
“Everything’s good,” Rune called. “I knocked over a shelf.” She turned back to Ellis. “You might want to mark this milestone down in her progress chart, Ellie.”
“You think?”
“What’d she do?” the guard asked.
Both Rune and Ellis turned from the baby to face the door, surprised the op was still out there.
“Pardon?” Rune said.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“No,” Rune and Ellie said at the same time.
“It’s just…”
Ellie narrowed his eyes and strode to the doorway. “What do you want?”
“She’s kind of a big deal.” His voice was sheepish. “We’re all invested.”
“If I find out people are betting on that baby,” Ellis said, “I will personally see you all fired.”
The op muttered something Rune didn’t catch.
“Go wait in the hall,” Ellis told him. “Do not come into this area again unless you’re invited. And close the door behind you.”
“Wait,” Rune said, and went to the doorway to peer out at the op.