by Laken Cane
“I’ll pack Nikolai to the car,” Jack told her.
She looked at him and frowned. “What?”
“The sun is coming,” he said, gently. “We don’t want to leave him out here for the sun.”
“No. No, of course we don’t.” She blew out a hard breath. “Thanks, Jack.”
“Lee’s dead,” the berserker said. “What’s your plan?”
“I’ll bring her back. I’ll tell Sylvia that Eugene put her in a coma or some shit. By the time she knows I’m lying, it’ll be too late.” She shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got.”
He nodded. “I’ll walk you down the mountain.”
She hesitated. She needed to spend a moment with him—wanted to—but she didn’t want to leave the others without the protection of the berserker, not even for a few minutes.
“Go,” Raze said, then added, “We’ll manage. Somehow.”
“I’ll call to have a car sent up for us.” Levi pulled his cell from his pocket. “We can walk to meet it.”
“Don’t tell Eugene what we’re doing,” Rune said. “I don’t want him hiding Lee’s body.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Jack said. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t want to take a chance.” Because really, she just didn’t know what Eugene might do. He wasn’t going to want to give Lee back to Sylvia, dead or not. Maybe he’d fight it, maybe he wouldn’t.
“All right,” she told Strad. “Walk with us to meet the car.”
The twins and Jack strode ahead of them, giving them some privacy, and Rune appreciated it. Because no matter how tough she was, no matter how much bad shit was going on, she needed to soften for just a moment. She needed to allow her brain some peace, no matter how temporary.
“Strad,” she murmured. “When this is over…” She hesitated, then tilted back her head to look into his eyes. “I missed you.” She swallowed. “God knows I need you.”
Had she told him that before? She couldn’t remember.
His groan came out hoarse and low. He wrapped his arms around her, then pushed her back against a tree.
The twins and Jack kept walking.
But even as she parted her lips in anticipation of the berserker’s kiss, he pressed his forehead to hers, shuddered against her, and then, he stepped back.
Away from her.
“I can’t hold you,” he told her. “I can’t kiss you. Not here.”
She nodded, and maybe she was hurt a little when she walked past him, heading down the mountain.
He shot out a hand and stopped her. “I’ll love you forever. But I can’t touch you and then let you go. Not like that.” He shook his head, slowly, and she thought she saw confusion in his eyes. “Not anymore.”
“Why not?” She breathed the question, feeling a little like a child asking why, waiting breathlessly for the answer.
He softened his grip. “Because now I know what it’s like to believe I’m never getting you back.”
She gave an unintentional sob, and when he let go of her arm, she reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his. There was no way she could have made herself believe there wasn’t something between them. Something huge.
Something destined.
The force of it shook her to her core.
And even a badass could fall in love.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.
His grin came suddenly, wolfish and blistering hot, and she couldn’t breathe.
“You’re just now realizing you love me?” he asked.
Hadn’t she realized she loved him before? Sure, she had. Sure. But not that…hard. Not that much.
She’d never really realized how tangled up in the berserker she was.
And it scared the hell out of her.
“Wait for Jack and then go protect the crew,” she snarled.
He sighed, but the look in his eyes was tender.
“I am so fucked,” she muttered. “This is crazy.”
With her berserker staring after her, she went to fetch a dead woman to trade for a wererabbit.
And it didn’t get any crazier than that.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack lowered Nikolai’s body into the trunk of the crew car, then Rune and the twins climbed in to ride to the Annex. The op who drove them never said a word.
The twins fell asleep before they left the winding mountain road, but Rune stared out of the window with burning, dry eyes and thought about Roma, the demon, and the assassin.
And Nikolai.
He’d wanted a fresh start. He’d wanted out of Skyll.
She didn’t cry.
She was getting used to the bad stuff.
Ben was a coward with a grudge, and she barely gave him a second thought. She would snap his neck like a twig and throw his body into the garbage.
Sylvia didn’t concern her either.
The demon, though.
Sylvia and Ben didn’t realize it, but the demon was running the show. Even if he seemed leashed, somewhat, by Sylvia, he was the one with the power.
Literally.
Five minutes before they entered Spiritgrove, she called Ellie. He’d be asleep, but she needed to hear his voice.
“Ellie,” she murmured, when he answered his phone.
“I’m here, Rune.”
“Kader’s okay?” It wasn’t a question. If something had been wrong with Kader, Ellie would have called her. She just needed something to say.
“Who did we lose?” he asked, his voice soft, tired.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Nikolai.”
“No. Oh Rune.”
She nodded. “He’s in the trunk. This demon asshole is—”
“Rune?”
“Hang on, baby.” She took the phone away from her ear and cocked her head, eyes narrowed.
Levi leaned up from the backseat, awakening immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel something. Or hear something…” She put the cell back to her ear. “We’re getting a flat tire, Ellie. I’ll call you later.”
She hung up, knowing he probably heard the lie in her voice and would worry, but…
She felt something.
“Pull over,” she told the silent op.
“We’ll be in the city in two minutes. I—”
“Pull over now.”
She was out of the car before it had fully stopped. The twins were right behind her when she strode to the back of the car. “Pop the trunk,” she yelled.
She knew before she lifted the trunk that she was going to see something terrible. Visions of the thing they’d kept in the Killing Land caves—she couldn’t call that thing the berserker; couldn’t even think it—assaulted her mind.
Grim, what did you do?
She didn’t hesitate. She shot out her claws and prepared to do what she had to do. But when Denim lifted the trunk lid and stepped back, swiftly, she had no time to do anything.
Nikolai the vampire leapt from the trunk, screaming, his eyes flaming red orbs of terror, and grabbed her by her vest. “The sun,” he cried.
Dawn was coming.
Dawn was coming, and Nikolai was alive.
“Fuck,” she whispered, then, “Go underground.”
Confusion lit his black, dull eyes. “Rune…”
As though he had no idea what she was talking about. And maybe he didn’t. He wasn’t even healed. He was simply…living. As much as a vampire could live. He needed badly to feed.
But more than that, he needed to hide.
Grim had given Nikolai a second chance, but not even Grim could save him from the sun.
“Help me,” he said.
Sometimes she forgot what she was.
“Come.” She grabbed his hand, ignoring the way it rippled like a sack of water in her grip.
“Rune,” Levi said. “What—”
“Go to the Annex. I’ll meet you there.”
“Hurry,” Nikolai whispered. “It burns…”
“I’ve got you.” She gather
ed her strength, her speed, and her vampire, and she took them both into the earth.
It was a natural thing, when she opened herself up to it. An ancient thing. Vampires had once lived in the ground—but somewhere along the way they seemed to have lost their ability. Or maybe they’d just forgotten.
Maybe the earth had ceased to welcome and nurture them.
But when Rune slipped down into it, deeper and deeper and deeper, it welcomed her. Eagerly.
Its darkness was protective, its soil thick, buttery softness into which they sank. It surrounded them with loving, welcoming arms, and it cradled her as she cradled the damaged vampire.
She never wanted to leave. It was so peaceful there, there in the earth’s warm, sweet womb, and she closed her eyes and let the perfection of it seep into her soul.
“Finally,” someone whispered.
Maybe it was her. Maybe it wasn’t.
The sweet darkness began to finish what Grim had started. It began to heal the vampires.
Both of them.
She might have stayed there forever had not Roma’s desperation forced her to move. But she’d return to bathe in that thick, creamy darkness.
She’d go back often.
To hide, to heal, to pause.
She reluctantly propelled herself back to the surface, and when she knelt on the ground once again, the brightness of dawn seemed less friendly. Likely it wasn’t the dawn at all that made her uneasy. It was the world.
And she was a little changed. A little different, once again.
Ten minutes later she was striding through the doors of the Annex. The twins sat on a bench just inside the doors, and rose to meet her when they saw her coming.
“Eugene?” she asked.
“We haven’t seen him. He may not be in yet,” Levi said.
“He’s in. He’s always in.”
She was right. Eugene’s secretary wasn’t at her desk yet, but when she tapped on his office door, Bill pulled it open, and Eugene sat at his desk.
“Rune,” he said, standing. “Raze told me you’d been injured and the vampire was dead.”
“What has happened?” Bill asked.
“Nikolai is okay,” she told them. “And I’ve come for Lee Crane. Sylvia will trade Roma for her.”
“No,” Eugene said, flatly. He sat back down. “When she discovers her mother is dead—”
“I’ll figure it out.” Rune put her hands on her hips. “Get her ready for me, Eugene. I’m taking her to the mountain.”
He hesitated.
“I don’t have time for this,” Rune said. “Roma is dying. Someone is going to die today, because Nikolai cheated death. I don’t want it to be her.”
Bill frowned. “Rune?”
She pushed her fist against her mouth. “Shit. I don’t know why I said that. No one is fucking dying.”
But someone was. She could feel it.
Her skin erupted in gooseflesh and her heart began to beat hard and fast with dread and horror and fear.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“What’s happening?” Bill asked.
She swallowed hard, then blew out a long breath. “I’m terrified right now and I have no idea why.” She looked at the twins, as though they could reassure her. “Someone is going to die.”
“Why are you saying this?” Levi asked, taking a step back. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Nikolai shouldn’t have been brought back,” she whispered. “Now someone has to take his place to satisfy…”
“Death?” Bill asked, pale. “Death isn’t a person, Rune. Calm yourself.”
But she’d gone inside the earth and the earth had told her the truth.
Grim had shown her what he could do, but he’d done the wrong fucking thing—and now someone else would die.
She knew it as much as she knew she was standing in Eugene’s office with all four men staring at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Give me Lee Crane,” she said, almost unable to get the words through her numb lips. “I have to get back to my crew.”
“I can’t, Rune.” He ran his hand over his face and his stare flitted around the room like a nervous butterfly. “I can’t.”
“You buried her?” She shrugged. “I’ll dig her up.”
Bill studied Eugene, curiosity in his eyes. “Where is she?”
“I burned her,” Eugene said, so softly Rune almost didn’t hear him. He opened a desk drawer, then gently placed a small black jar on his desk. “All that’s left of Lee Crane are these ashes and the grieving girl on Spikemoss Mountain.”
Chapter Twenty
Rune’s cell rang into the awful, heavy silence.
She pulled it from her pocket automatically. “What?”
“Rune,” Ellis said. “Where are you?”
“Annex,” she said, not taking her stare off Eugen. “Kader?”
“Kader’s fine. But you need to come home.”
“Why?”
“I’m not on speaker?”
“No.”
“Don’t say anything to Eugene, but the gargoyles are here.” He hesitated. “Come home. Something has happened.”
“All right,” she murmured, then hung up and slid her phone back into her pocket.
No one asked if everything was okay.
Nothing was okay.
“Rune,” Bill asked, finally, gesturing at the jar of ashes. “What will you do now?”
She gave a harsh bark of laughter. “Who the fuck knows?” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “We’ll have to break down the demon’s wall. We’ll have to risk Roma’s life by attacking that little group of assholes on Spikemoss Mountain.”
She walked to Eugene’s desk and picked up the jar of ashes. “If Roma dies because of your stupidity, you will have a very big problem.”
He simply nodded.
She carried the urn through the doorway, and he never demanded it back. He knew better.
The ashes didn’t belong to him.
She waited until they were in a crew car and on their way to the Moor before she told them about Ellie’s call. Levi immediately punched in Ellis’s cell number.
“We’re on our way,” he said, once Ellis answered. “Are you hurt?”
“What’s the plan?” Denim asked her, as Levi talked to Ellie.
“I need to break the wall. We could bring up every op in the Annex, send in helicopters, drop in from above, behind, anything. We could get them. But the demon will kill Roma and disappear before we can do shit.”
He nodded. “Rune…” He hesitated, then continued on, his voice stronger. He didn’t look at her as he drove them closer to the Moor. “Roma is going to die. She was dead the minute they took her. We just need to take out the ones who killed her.”
“Fuck you.” She clenched her fists as the desire to hit him almost overpowered her. “She’d never give up on us, asshole. And we will never give up on her.”
His expression never changed, and he didn’t back down. “She’s lost to us, and we need to go in based on that, not on the fear that Angel French will kill her if we make the wrong move.”
She realized Levi was no longer on the phone and turned to look at him. “Levi?”
He knew what she was asking.
Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t know. I think they’ll kill her no matter what we do.”
Rune stared at him, then looked at Denim. “She’s alive. They may kill her before we can extract her. They probably will. But she’s one of ours, and we’ll do everything we can to save her.” She turned to gaze out her window. “I’d do the same for either one of you. And you know what? So would she.”
No one spoke again until they arrived home.
A crew car was parked in her driveway.
“What the hell?” Rune walked around the car slowly, the twins right behind her. “How can the gargoyles be driving an Annex car if they’re hiding from Eugene?”
“We’re not hiding,” Gavin said, and stepped off her porch.
“Eugene said you took off,” Levi told him, his fingers resting near his blades. “That he’d sent trackers after you.”
Gavin didn’t move. “He lied.”
“Where have you been?” Rune left the crew car and walked to the porch. “And where is Bellamy?”
“She’s in the house.” He glanced around the area, then turned to walk back up the porch steps. “And we need to talk to you. Inside.”
Rune glanced at the twins, shrugged, then followed the gargoyle into her house. “Dude, this place is surrounded by Annex ops. You don’t think they’ll report to Eugene that you’re here?”
“They have no reason to,” he said. “I, too, am an Annex op. They are not suspicious of me and my sister.”
“Rune,” Ellis said, when they walked into the house. He hugged her, then Levi. “Kader has missed you.”
“Mama’s home,” Kader said. She sat in the middle of the living room floor, surrounded by a pile of toys.
Rune frowned when she noticed the package Gunnar had given her lying on the coffee table. Waiting for her.
Rune knelt beside Kader, then kissed her forehead. “How are you doing, kiddo?”
“I’m good, thanks,” Kader said, then picked up a toy gun and shot her teddy bear in the head. “He dead.”
Ellis flinched. “Kader, that is not—”
“Leave her alone,” Rune said, standing. “Really, Ellie. Did you think she was going to grow up to be an accountant?”
He swallowed, his uneasy stare on the child. She tossed her stuffed animal aside and began chattering to an oversized doll with curly blonde hair.
Rune turned to Gavin. “You have five minutes, so start talking. I have a friend to rescue, in case you haven’t heard.”
Bellamy walked in from the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee and a sandwich. “We heard.” She put her mug and sandwich on the coffee table, then looked at Rune with the same blank expression on Gavin’s face. “Tell her, Gavin. Tell her what he did to us.”
“It’s time for Kader’s nap,” Ellis said, and picked up the child. “Let’s go find Aly, okay, sweetie?”
Rune put her hands on her hips. “Well?” she said, once Ellis had taken Kader from the room. “Exactly what did he do to you?”