Killing Land (Rune Alexander Book 8) (6 page)

“Sorry to wake you.” Bill Rice’s voice was alert and steady.

She was pretty sure he rarely slept but wished he would take
her
need for sleep a little more seriously.

“
It’s
fine,” Rune said, blinking
bleary eyes. “What time is it?”

“Five thirty.”

“Fuck.”

“Sorry,” he repeated.

“You don’t sound sorry,” she grumbled. She sat up in bed and
shoved her hair out of her face, looking around hopefully as though coffee
might magically appear. “What’s up?”

“I just got word that a group of humans are rounding up
newly healed
Others
. They’re shooting them,
then
beheading them. The human who called it in said he was
with them when they were just running the
Others
out
of town, but what he was witnessing was too much.”

“Son of a bitch,” she said, no longer sleepy. She jumped out
of bed, put her phone on speaker, and began dressing in whatever clothes she
got to first. “How the hell are the humans controlling the
Others
?
Why aren’t the
Others
fighting back?”

“They’ve been melting into heaps of rot. They’re confused,
weak, and vulnerable. Worse, they gathered together because they believed there
was safety in numbers. That just made it easier for the humans.”

“I understand the
Others
are still
healing,” Rune said, lacing up her boots, “but still. The shifters and wolves
could shift and eat the fucking humans. Why aren’t they?”

“I’m sure they’re trying. But when you have dozens of silver
bullets cutting you down, it can be a little difficult to reach those holding
the guns.” He hesitated. “They’re not you, Rune.”

“Fucking humans.”
She buckled a gun
belt around her waist and grabbed her shotgun, though she probably wouldn’t
need either one of them.

“One other thing, Rune.”

“What?” She scooped her phone off the dresser and left the
room, charging down the hall to wake up her crew.

“The man who called in said the group is calling themselves
Shiv Crew Two. They’re telling the
Others
they have
you and your crew backing them.”

“Assholes,” she muttered. “I’ll set things straight, Bill.
Give me the location.
Wormwood?”

“No.
Willowburg.
In
the woods right off Spectral Road, at the Population Hole.”

“Got it.”
The Population Hole was a
large, peaceful part of Birch Creek. Once upon a time it had been a popular
summer swimming and picnic spot for young people. After three of them died in
as many years, the Population Hole was believed to be haunted and was abandoned
by all but the most daring—or stupid—of humans.

She hung up and knocked on the bedroom Lex had once
inhabited. “Roma, let’s go.”

Next she awakened Levi and Ellie, then Denim. She called
Jack and Raze as she was making a pot of coffee. She poured the coffee into a
thermos, and then she was ready to go.

Her crew crowded around her in the kitchen, alert, ready,
and eager—especially when she told them what Bill had said.

She was ready to fight, and so were they.

When she opened the front door and stepped out, Grim
streaked past her.

“Grim,” Roma yelled. Then, “You want me to chase him?”

“No. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Yeah,” Levi said. “And he’s too big for anyone to mess with
him.”

“Shiv Crew Two,” Rune muttered, striding to her car. “I am
going to kick so
much ass
.”

“Have you noticed anything different since leaving the path?”
Roma asked, buckling herself in.

Rune started her car.
“Surprisingly, no.
You?”

Roma rubbed her stomach.
“Just this
unending hunger.”

“Sorry, baby. Check the glovebox. I always carry candy.”

Roma found the Baby Ruth candy bars, and ripped the wrapper
open—barely—before stuffing the candy in her mouth. “Oh. Oh,
yes
.” The
rest of her words were unintelligible mumbles as she wolfed down the candy.

Rune lifted an eyebrow. “Have you been craving anything you
wouldn’t normally eat?” She was curious.
And lucky, so far.
Her monster hadn’t been stolen by the path.

But the path always took or changed something. It was just a
matter of figuring out what it had done to her.

Roma was quiet for so long Rune glanced at her.
“Roma?”

“Why did you ask that?” Roma asked, her face turned away and
voice low.

Guilty.

“Tell me.”

“I want meat. I don’t eat meat.
Have never
eaten meat.
But now…now I want a steak. Even the smell made me sick
before. The look of it, the scent…it was disgusting. And now…now it’s all I
think about.”

“There are worse things than eating a cheeseburger.”

Roma shuddered.

And Rune had a strong feeling the girl wasn’t telling her
everything.

“Can you shoot a gun?” Rune asked.

“I don’t need to shoot a gun.” Roma hefted her slingshot.
“You know what I can do with this.”

“You’ll need to be able to use more than one weapon. Give
your slingshot a little help.”

Roma simply smiled. “It needs no help.
Only
my fingers.”

“The path always takes something. You haven’t been tested
yet. The slingshot was magical on Skyll—but this isn’t Skyll.”

“It’s fine.” But she frowned and glanced down at her
slingshot.

Rune shrugged.
“If you say so.”

“And yes, I can handle a gun.”

“Good.”

“Your men.”
Roma paused and
swallowed a hunk of candy that would have choked most people.

“What about them?”

“They’re very…”

“Hot?” Rune grinned.

Roma nodded. “Jack, especially.”

“Sexy Jack,” Rune murmured.

“Is he unattached?” Roma studied her fingernails.

Rune bit off a grin. “Jack is single.”

“He’s like a god,” Roma said. “He walks and I think of sex.”

“That’s Jack. He has that effect on women. What about Raze?”

Roma turned up her lip. “Raze is an overly large sexist…
kelper
.”

“He’s a good man.
Just a little rough
around the edges.
You can trust every member of Shiv Crew. Once you
become one of us, you’re one of us forever.” She paused.
“No
matter what.”

“You’re upset.”

“No. I’m…” Rune shook her head. “It’s not important. We’re
here.” She turned off the engine. “If you need me, give me a yell. Don’t take
chances with your life.”

“
You
do,” Roma pointed out.

“I’m immortal.”

“I’m not weak or vulnerable.” Roma’s voice grew stiffer with
each word. “I can take care of myself. And you.” She turned her head to meet
Rune’s gaze. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Rune sighed, but there was no time to discuss it further.
There was a group of humans waiting to be taken to task.

“Just be careful. Humans can be tricky bastards and nearly
every single one of them owns a gun. You might be a badass, but even you can’t
dodge a bullet.” She nodded at Raze and the twins as they got out of their own
vehicles and joined her. “
Can
you?”

Roma pursed her lips and hefted her slingshot. “I can dodge
a bullet, protect a princess, and shoot the head off an enemy with a single
stone.” She grinned, and her eyes glowed with excitement. “I’m ready.”

“She’s more like you than I thought, Rune,” Jack said, and
winked at Roma.

Roma blanched,
then
blushed.
“I...I…”

Jack frowned, keeping stride with Rune. “Is she okay?” he
whispered.
Or tried to whisper.
Jack wasn’t real good
at keeping his voice down.

Rune giggled. “She’s fine.”

Jack grabbed Rune’s arm. “Did you just
giggle?
”

“Holy shit,” Rune said, pressing a hand to her stomach. “I
think I did.”

The twins jogged toward them. “What’s wrong?” Levi asked.

“Rune giggled,” Jack said.

“Are you okay?” Denim asked.

“Maybe the path did something to her,” Raze said, his stare
going from Rune to Roma. “Did you drug her or something?”

“She
laughed,”
Roma
said,
her eyes wide and disbelieving. “Why do you think something’s wrong with her
just because she laughed?”

“She didn’t laugh,” Jack disagreed, drawing Roma’s immediate
and adoring glance. “She giggled. Rune Alexander doesn’t giggle.”

“Neither does her monster,” Levi said. “It didn’t leave, did
it?”

Rune shot out her claws. “No.”

“Well…just stop that,” Raze said. “That giggling shit ain’t
right.”

“You’re a moron,” Roma told him.

“Children,” Rune said. “Shut up. I hear—”

“Machine-fucking-guns,” Jack said. “They have machine guns.
No wonder the
Others
are having trouble.”

Rune dropped the shotgun strap over her head and then shot
out her claws. “Catch up.” She streaked away from them, running full force
toward the slaughter in the woods.

The
Others—
those still
alive—huddled together, arms around each other, as a firing squad of humans
took aim.

Rune didn’t hesitate. Growling, she threw herself at the
vicious and cruel humans, seeing them through a red haze of rage.

They scattered desperately, yelling, but it was too late for
them.

She didn’t even think to question them.

She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to kill.

“No,” Roma screamed, her voice full of panic.
“It…
no.”

It took Rune three seconds to figure out the problem. Roma
hadn’t manipulated her slingshot with sheer talent. In Skyll, the slingshot had
been special.

And the path had taken its power.

Just as Rune had feared.

There was no time for Roma to be devastated. Not then.

Rune tossed her the shotgun, which was still as powerful as
it had ever been.

The slingshot fell to the ground, and Roma caught the gun.

Rune concentrated on the humans with the machine guns, but
if a less dangerous threat got in her way, it quickly became a dead threat.

When the humans had been neutralized and their blood mixed
with the blood of the murdered Others, Rune surveyed the area.

It was impossible to make sense of it.

“How many humans alive?” she asked.

“Three of them,” Jack answered.
“Three out
of four dozen.”

“That’s three too many,” she snarled. “Somebody call the
Annex. Get the medics and clean-up crews here.”

The remaining
Others
crouched
together,
unshifted
and quiet, trembling with
weakness and fear.

With her crew at her side, she walked toward them. “What the
fuck is wrong with you? Why didn’t you shift and fight? Or
run?
”

Roma knelt beside the sickly
Others
.
In her eyes lurked desperation—she wasn’t ready to acknowledge the fact that
her slingshot, the weapon she’d wielded for God knew how long, had died. “I’ve
never seen wolves or shifters meekly allow their own massacre.”

One of the wolves, a man around forty, struggled to his
feet. His face was haggard and set in pained lines, and his clothes hung on his
bony frame. “The rotting disease fucked us up.”

Rune frowned at him. “I brought the cure. You should be
healing rapidly.”

“We’re healing from the disease,” he said, “but we still
can’t shift. It took our Otherness and left us frail human fragments.”

“What the fuck,” Rune murmured. “That can’t be right.”

“It’s like our bodies forgot how to shift,” a female said.
“We just forgot.”

“Maybe you need a little while longer to heal.” But Rune was
simply not sure.

“You have to help us,” the male wolf said. “We can’t live
like this. The humans are destroying us, and there’s nothing we can do to stop
them.”

“Weapon up,” Raze said. “That’ll put you on equal ground
with the humans.”

“That’s not really the point,” Roma said, politely. “The
point is
,
they’re missing part of themselves. They’re
not humans with guns. They’re
Others
with—”

“I know what they are,” Raze growled. “But until they get
that back, they need to be able to protect themselves.” He glowered down at
Roma, who turned up her nose and looked away.

“I have to figure this out,” Rune muttered, not really
listening to any of them.

“We,” Jack
said,
his voice quiet.
“We have to figure this out.”

He would not have her feeling alone.

She may have been abandoned by some of her crew, but those
who remained would not allow her to forget they surrounded her.

“We weapon up, we get shipped off to a prison camp,” the
male said.

“What’s your name?” Levi asked.

“Shane.”

“Shane, get your pack some weapons. We won’t let you get
sent up.” He looked at Rune.
“Right?”

She nodded.
“Yeah.”

“We just need to shift,” the female cried. “It hurts.”

“The humans said they’re part of your crew.” Shane swayed on
his feet, but his stare was steady. “That’s not true, of course.”

“Not even a little bit,” Rune bit off. “Fucking assholes
might be COS rejects, but they are not part of us.”

“We thought as much.”

The wolf swayed a little harder, and Rune shot out a hand to
steady him. “You okay?”

The moment she touched him, the wolf cried out, shuddered,
and fell to his knees. He contorted his body, his face scrunched up into a mask
of pain.

“Let go of him,” one of the wolves yelled.

“Rune?”
Jack asked. “What are you doing?”

But she couldn’t let go of the wolf. “Mine,” she whispered,
electricity zapping her body. “Oh shit. He’s mine.”

Pleasure caressed her brain, her body, her heart.

Not just pleasure.
Power.

“Princess?”
Roma stood, and she and
Raze held off the
Others
trying to get to Shane.

“Bring them all to me,” Rune
said,
her voice thick. “Bring them.”

Some of the shifters and
weres
tried to run, but they were too weak to get far before Jack and the twins
herded them back to Rune.

All of them
struggled,
sure Rune was
going to kill them. But then, Shane jumped to his feet, his face shining, and
with a scream of joy that turned to a howl of release, he shifted.

Rune
made
him shift.

She found his wolf, found it wandering the darkness inside
his mind, and she pulled the beast to the surface.

The air was soon full of howls and playful yips of joy as
the
Others
did what they needed to do.

“Because she’s the princess,” Roma said, though no one asked
her. “She holds the beasts.”

The
Others
loped around the area,
playing, rejoicing, and suddenly, it was as though they realized how long
they’d been starved for meat.
For blood.

For the chase.

They went abruptly from sick and feeble and victimized to
raging, hungry animals.

Bloodlust ruled them.

Their voices rose into the gray skies, and as one, they
turned toward Rune and her crew, and then looked at the three bound humans on
the ground.

The humans’ flesh seeped blood from wounds they’d sustained
during their tussle with Shiv Crew, and the wolves…

The wolves wanted it.

“Two of you get those humans to the cars. The rest of you,
help me hold back the wolves.”

Roma pointed her borrowed shotgun at one of the advancing
wolves. “Kill?”

“No,” Rune said. Whatever connection or hold she’d had with
the
Others
seemed to have disappeared as quickly as it
had appeared, and there was no recognition or appreciation in the wolves’ eyes.
Maybe she held their beasts, but she couldn’t seem to make a starved
Other
obey her.

They lowered their shaggy heads between sharp shoulder
blades and advanced.
Slowly, and with unwavering
determination.

She felt badly for them, she did. She knew the sharp,
unrelenting agony caused by hunger.
By being forced to ignore
that hunger.

She held up her hand. “You’re free to hunt, but you’re not
getting my crew or the three humans.” She shot out her claws and took a step
forward. “I don’t want to kill you after you just got your fucking shifts back,
so you might want to think about whether or not attacking us is worth it.”

They stopped, eight huge wolves and three shifters, and
seemed to consider her words.

“Get out of here,” she said. “Go hunt in the woods. You
don’t need to die today.”

And finally, after a long, tense moment, the wolves tossed a
few howls around, then turned and streaked away.

“What happened to them?” Levi asked.

“Sometimes when the monster comes back, he takes over.” She
grinned at him. “Sometimes they need a minute.”

“Why didn’t you give them the humans?” Roma asked. “The
humans were going to kill them all.”

Rune looked at her,
then
began to walk
out of the woods, back toward the cars. Roma and the twins fell into step
beside her.

“I won’t throw helpless beings to the wolves,” Rune
answered. “No matter what kind of assholes they are.”

They met Annex ops coming in as they were leaving.

“Productive day, Alexander?” one of them asked, pushing a
stretcher.

She grinned.

She jumped the ditch between the woods and the road, and
then got into her car. “Give me the wet wipes out of the glovebox, Roma.”

She’d cleaned most of the blood off her hands, face, and
arms when the radio crackled.

It was an Annex dispatcher. “There’s something going on in
Wormwood. The caller was pretty upset.
Inside the main gates.
Can you and your crew take it?”

“We’re headed there now,” Rune said. “What’d he say is going
on?”

“He said someone killed a guy.”

Rune hung up, frowning.

“You’re kept busy here,” Roma noted.

Rune nodded, slowly. “It’s as though I never left.”

She drove toward Wormwood, her crew trailing her. The
biggest part of her hoped she’d see Gunnar the Ghoul.

But part of her dreaded it.

She wasn’t sure if she’d end up hugging him or kicking his
skinny ass.