Wormwood Echoes (2 page)

“Elizabeth,” Rune said. “Is it Fie?”

“Rune.” Elizabeth’s voice was tired and somehow confused.

Rune clutched her stomach with her free hand, drawing Strad’s sharp stare. He took her hand, and she didn’t draw away. Sudden fear spiked through her, and she knew she was about to hear something she really didn’t want to hear.

“
Fuck,
Elizabeth,” she murmured. “What is it?”

“Come in,” Elizabeth said. “Just come in.”

Gooseflesh arose on Rune’s skin, and she shuddered with reaction—reaction to what, she couldn’t have said—as she pushed her phone into her pocket.

“Rune,” Strad said. He stood with a stillness that let her know he was ready to kill someone—she just had to say the word.

“Something’s wrong with Fie,” she told him.

“I’ll drive,” he said, and didn’t seem surprised when she acquiesced. He knew from looking at her that she just wanted to huddle in a corner and weep.

“What the fuck is it?” he asked, as he drove too fast toward the Annex.

“I don’t know. But it’s something bad.”

And when wasn’t it? When
wasn’t
it something bad?

“You’re not completely healed.”

“I’m healed, Berserker. I’m just…” What? Weaker? More afraid? Her decapitation had kicked her ass.

She lifted her fingers to her throat and caressed the ridged scar, and a vivid image of black and red swirling chaos shot through her mind.

Whatever had happened after her near death—her
death
—had broken her in ways she’d never been broken.

Had made her different.

And as the days went by, images of something she couldn’t quite grasp fluttered on the edge of her mind.

It left not a picture, but a feeling.

A feeling of something so overwhelming it took her breath.

Z.

Something…something Z.

And it had happened when she’d been lying in the Annex, trying to repair a severed head and a shredded heart.

What had she done?

She shook her head hard, trying to drive out the agonizing, furtive thought of something she couldn’t grab onto.

“Rune?” The berserker reached across the seat and took her hand.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“Yeah. You are.”

But neither one of them believed it.

It took an eternity to reach the Annex.

They strode into the building and down the corridor toward Fie’s room, fear swirling so thick it was almost visible. They both loved the tiny necromancer.

She’d gone to hell and had never entirely returned. And she was just a child. Just a fucking baby.

Rune ran into the room, fully expecting to see the little girl lying still and unbreathing, encased in the netting that had taken over her body.

The netting had gradually closed and changed to resemble, as Elizabeth had said, a mud dauber’s nest. It had climbed slowly until it covered her throat, her face, her head.

And there she had lain, locked within that horrible shell.

But no longer.

Elizabeth was standing at Fie’s bedside. Eugene Parish stood at the other side, his eyes jumping with excitement.

“Rune,” Elizabeth cried. “I…
look
at her.”

Rune walked to the foot of the bed, and she looked.

Strad stood at her back and never made a sound.

Stefanie had changed.

“Hi, Rune,” she said. “I got out.”

Her voice was nasally and her words were not as clear as they’d once been, but Rune understood her.

“Yes,” Rune said, breathless. “You did, sweetheart.”

The little girl looked past Rune to the berserker. She held out her arms. “Pick me up.”

Eugene rubbed his hands together. “We’ll grow her some skin. Just as we did for you, Rune. Until then, a mask can be custom made—”

“Quiet,” Elizabeth hissed. “You will be quiet!”

Fie glanced at her foster mother, but was only interested for a second in Elizabeth’s distress. “Uncle B’serk,” she said. “Pick me up.”

“No, Stefanie,” Elizabeth said, her voice gentle.

Strad strode to the side of the bed and nudged Elizabeth out of the way. “I’m holding her.”

“She could get…she...” Elizabeth pushed her hair off her forehead with a shaking hand, unable to find the words. “You can’t move her.”

But he was the berserker, and he could do anything he wanted. He leaned over and scooped the child, blankets and all, into his arms.

He didn’t look at anyone. Not even Rune.

“How long has she been free of the net?” Rune asked.

Elizabeth glanced at her watch. “Two hours. She wouldn’t eat or drink. The techs drew blood.”

“We’ll know more when we have a look at her labs,” Eugene said. He stood quietly, his stare never leaving the child.

Fie wiggled against Strad’s chest. “Ow. You got too many hard things on.”

He went pale. “Are you okay?”

“Uh huh. Can I go outside?”

Fie needed the outdoors. She needed the air, no matter how chilly. She’d spent a lot of time trapped inside the hell of the mysterious net.

Rune shuddered. She’d have gone stark raving mad. She took a deep breath. “Let’s take her outside, Strad.”

He nodded and headed for the door, ignoring Elizabeth’s orders not to leave the room.

Rune put a hand on Elizabeth’s arm and opened her mouth to reassure the woman, but before she could get a word out, Fie saw herself in the reflective glass of the door.

She gave a small scream, almost hidden by the berserker’s curses as he realized the mistake he’d made.

He turned quickly and shielded the child from her reflection, but she struggled in his arms.

“Don’t,” she cried. “Let me see.”

Strad looked at Rune for help.

“Let her see,” Rune said. “Take her back, Berserker.”

And no one argued.

It was time to let the child come face to face with her monster.

Fie stared at her image without moving. Just stared.

At last, she tilted her head, then lifted her fingers to her face. She watched as the child in the mirror made the exact same movements.

“That’s me?” she asked. “Am I scary?”

Elizabeth rushed to her. “No, darling. You’re beautiful.”

“Rune,” Fie ordered.

“Yeah?”

“Am I scary?”

Rune sighed. “Yeah, baby. You’re a little scary.”

Fie continued looking in the mirror, turning her face from side to side, trying to purse lips that were just barely there. Watching, fascinated, the little girl with the fleshless face.

Then she grew bored. “Can we go outside now?”

Strad, still a little too pale, opened his mouth, then closed it. He cleared his throat. “What’s happening?”

Rune grinned. “She’s a kid.”

“Wait,” Fie cried, as Strad started once more for the door. “I want my pink hair bow. Put it in.”

And once Elizabeth fastened the bow into her hair, the little girl was satisfied.

“You’re beautiful,” Elizabeth said.

“I know,” Fie answered.

The net that had sheathed her hadn’t appeared to touch her body. Her hands, her feet, the pale strip of her little belly that showed beneath her white top…all normal.

But it had eaten her face.

Huge, hollow black eyes stared calmly above the gray-white protrusions of her cheekbones. Tiny little teeth were set in a permanent grin above a pointy chin.

Her lids were so transparent her eyes were still visible when she closed them. Thin, flesh-colored lips clung with stubborn insistence.

Her face was an almost incomprehensible mess of gleaming bone, strips and patches and networks of red, blue, and gray muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and…

Hideousness.

Her hair was silky and fine and shiny with its side part and its pink hair bow. And despite her raw, skeletal face, innocence shined from her like a beacon.

“You know what, kid?” Rune said. “You really are a little beauty.”

“I
know,
” Fie said.

“Rune,” Eugene said. “When you have a minute.”

She nodded. “You coming, Elizabeth?”

“No. I need to speak with Eugene. Don’t keep her outside long. And
watch
her.”

They understood. They weren’t to allow her to call the dead.

As if they could stop her.

Then Elizabeth and Eugene hurried off, planning and plotting things they had no intention of sharing.

Likely, Rune figured, a way to make a new face for Stefanie.

Surprisingly few people stared.

None of them pointed.

That could have been because they were all Annex workers and had grown accustomed to seeing shocking things.

Or maybe it was because the man who held the child glared at them all with the sort of challenge not one of them was willing to accept.

“I saw Nikolai,” Fie said, suddenly.

Rune shivered as a sudden chill swept through her. “Nicolas?”

“
Nikolai,
” Fie insisted, almost angrily. “He is sad and bad.”

“And,” she went on, when no one said anything, “Brasque.
He’s
good. He talked to me.”

“When?” Rune whispered, then cleared her throat and tried again. “When, Fie?”

“After I went away.”

“When you were hanging in the net?” Strad asked.

“When I was in the net. I went away.”

Rune rubbed her arms and glanced at Strad. He lifted his eyebrows, as lost as she was.

“Who is Nikolai? And Brasque?”

Fie met Rune’s stare. “He’s nice.”

“Do you know where you went?” Because suddenly, Rune had to know. “Where did you go?” She put a hand on Strad’s arm and pulled him to a standstill.

“With the dogs. There were good places and bad places. I was in the good place but bad things were coming. Brasque made me leave.”

Strad looked at Rune. “Just a dream.”

But Rune shook her head. No. It was more than that. She could feel it like some sort of…
echo
coming from Fie’s body. “It wasn’t a dream, Berserker.”

They took Fie outside, just past the sliding double doors. As soon as the air hit her skin, the tiny girl threw back her head and took a deep breath.

“Cold,” she said, her voice lit with pleasure.

“Does it hurt your face?” Rune asked.

Fie didn’t answer.

Where did you go, Fie? Where the fuck did you go?

Rune’s cell rang, and she walked a few steps away to answer it. “Kelic. What is it?”

“You asked me if all Others were getting sick. I didn’t have an answer. I do now.”

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Fuck me.”

“Yes. The infection does not discriminate. All Others are fair game.” He hesitated. “Rune…”

“I’m already aware I may be infected, Kelic. If I find out that girl attacked me under your orders, the infection won’t have a chance to get to you. Not before I do.”

“I swear to you—”

“Save it,” she said and clicked off.

Fie was falling asleep in the berserker’s arms before she’d allow them to take her back to her room.

Elizabeth tucked her in, her brow knit with worry. “She’ll be fine,” she said to no one. And no one replied.

Rune leaned over the child to kiss her forehead. “See you soon, kid.”

Fie shot open her thinly covered eyes and grabbed Rune’s hair, wrapping it around her little fist. “They’re waiting for you,” she murmured. “To save them.”

“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.

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.