Wormwood Echoes (3 page)

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.

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.”

She left them there and went to her car, unsurprised when Lex got into the passenger seat.

“I’m swinging by Jack’s before I go to see Fie,” Rune told her.

“Yeah.” Lex hesitated. “It’ll be okay, Rune.”

“I know.” Rune glanced at her, relieved the little Other seemed better. Stronger.

“If you go there,” Lex said, “you’ll be doing exactly what she wants you to do.”

“No,” Rune disagreed. “If I go there, it’ll be because I have no choice. And when I get there…” She silently cursed the fear that rose up to choke her at the thought. “It’s time that bitch ends. And I’m going to be the one to end her.”

Lex turned to stare sightlessly out her window, silent.

Jack, Fie, Wormwood.

Strad.

She kept that string of words flowing through her head all the way to Jack’s house. It was the only thing that kept her from shattering into a million pieces.

Jack lived in a tiny bungalow on a quiet street in the city, and when she pulled into his driveway, she realized she’d only been to his house twice since she’d known him.

The first time he’d met her in his yard, and the second time he stood at the door and hadn’t asked her in.

But when he didn’t answer her hard knock, she didn’t care that he might not want people inside his house.

She kicked the door, just hard enough to force it open, but not hard enough to destroy it.

She had a little restraint, despite the nervous energy begging her to let it out.

“Jack,” she bellowed. “Where the fuck are you?”

Maybe he’s dead.

Shit. Stop being a paranoid little bitch.

“Jack,” she yelled again, her mind noticing—and filing away for later—the dark emptiness of his living room. She charged down a skinny hall, pushing open the first door she came to. There were only two. The second one likely contained a bathroom, because the first one was Jack’s bedroom.

“God,” she said, putting her hand to her nose.

The room stank of whiskey, vomit, and mustiness.

It smelled lonely and sad.

Just a little fucking sad.

She flipped his light on and stared around the room, shocked. “Shit, Jack.”

He looked like he’d just fallen across his mattress in a drunken stupor. His legs hung off the bed, and he still wore his boots and jeans.

The room contained only the bed and a dresser. The walls were bare. And though the room was neat, he’d flung his shirt to the floor, half covering some empty whiskey bottles.

And his eye patch.

She closed her eyes as pity reached out a relentless hand to choke her.

It was good Lex had waited in the car. No one needed to see him like that.

The bed dipped as she sat down beside his still form. She took the empty whiskey bottle from his lax fingers and placed it on the floor, then slipped her hand into his.

“Jack,” she murmured. “Wake up, baby.”

He didn’t stir.

After a couple of minutes she got up, found the bathroom, and filled a glass with cold water. She carried it back to the bed and without hesitating, tossed the water onto his face.

He came off the bed roaring, his hands reaching for weapons that weren’t there.

She stood back against the wall and waited.

He focused on her finally.

“Fuck you, Rune,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Get the fuck out of here.”

She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his body. She pressed her cheek against his flesh and again, she waited.

At last, he sighed and hugged her to him. “How bad is it?”

“It’s bad, Jack,” she said. “It’s pretty fucking bad.”

And they stood there in each other’s arms until Lex sounded the horn, urging them to action.

“I don’t care about Bill fucking Rice,” Rune said, pacing Eugene’s office.

“And I know you don’t mean that,” Eugene said, watching her.

Rune rubbed the bridge of her nose. “The berserker is missing. The ghoul is missing. Fie is missing her face. And…”

“What is it?”

She blew out a hard breath. “Call in Elizabeth and Bill. I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”

He didn’t hesitate.

While Eugene was calling them in, she went into the hall to make a phone call.

She called a floater she trusted and asked him to go to Bill’s house at night to watch for movement. If Bill left the house, or if anyone went into his house, the floater would call her.

She had too much to do to watch the house herself.

Bill and Elizabeth came in at the same time. They both looked tired, both looked worried. And Rune was about to add to it.

Without further delay, she told them about the Other sickness spreading through the town. “Right now it’s quiet. That’s going to change real fucking soon.”

“How could I not have heard about this?” Eugene picked up his phone, slammed it back down, and glared at her.

“Your sources are not my problem,” she said. “What I need to know is if you’re going to help. I’m not purging any vampires. The Others need your help. Are you going to give it to them?”

To us?

He stared her down. “I’d rather have a world full of Others than a world full of humans, Rune. Of course I’m going to help.” He stood. “Now everybody out. I have to get to work on this before every fucking Other in the world is wiped out.”

Rune didn’t move. “Eugene, if you—”

He held up a hand. “Don’t even think of threatening me. You’ll just make me angry and waste time we don’t have.” He leaned over his desk, his eyes intense. “If you need me to give you a selfish reason, here it is. Without the Others, I’m no one. All this goes away.”

He let her think about that for a second.

She nodded. “Okay.”

He straightened, once again picking up his phone. “Now get out and let me do my job.”

“Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked, once she, Rune, and Bill were outside Eugene’s office. “Have you heard from Strad?”

“Not yet.” And she wasn’t going to pull out her phone to check again. Not with Elizabeth and Bill watching her.

“What can you tell us?” Bill asked.

Rune eyed him, noticing the scratches on his neck and the bruise high on his cheekbone. “He was in bed with me. I went to sleep, then woke up to…laughter. We couldn’t see anyone, but I know it was Damascus.” She shook her head. “Her voice came through loud and clear.”

“Be careful, Rune. If she wants you there…”

Rune had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Fuck her.”

“If there’s anything I can do,” Bill said, “let me know.”

“I need to see Fie. Is she awake?”

Elizabeth glanced at her wrist, then realized she wasn’t wearing a watch. “Yes. But please don’t upset her.”

Rune didn’t bother replying. She probably would upset the kid, and Elizabeth knew that.

Bill hurried on down the hallway, passing up Fie’s room without another word.

“What’s wrong with him?” Rune asked Elizabeth. She toyed with the idea of telling the other woman that Bill was in trouble and that Eugene had asked her to spy on him, but decided against it.

She needed more information before she confided in Elizabeth.

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth answered. “He hasn’t been himself for a while now.”

And she was too involved with little Stefanie to care.

Bill was being neglected, really, by all of them.

She could only wait to hear something from the watching floater.

She wouldn’t know what to do without an overflowing plate.

“Strad will be back, Rune.”

Rune didn’t miss a step. “I know.” Of course he’d be back. His mind wouldn’t survive without feeding his addiction. Not for long.

But
why
had he gone? Why?

And then she stopped walking, only marginally aware that Elizabeth was speaking to her.

No.

“I’ll prove myself to you, Rune. I’m stronger than my addiction. I’m stronger than your blood.”

“Oh, God.”

“Rune?” Elizabeth frowned. “What is it?”

“He’s going to prove himself.”

“Who?”

“The berserker. He’s going to prove he’s stronger than the addiction.”

He’d prove it, or he’d die.

And no one was stronger than her fucking blood and bite. No one.

Not even Strad Matheson.

“Oh, God,” she said, again.

But she wouldn’t let it break her heart.

She wouldn’t.

So she got angry instead.

“I’ll never leave you, Rune.”

“Not even if I want you to?”

“Not even then.”

Fucking liar.

She pushed her fist into her abdomen so hard it hurt.

It hurt so much.

He’d lied to her again.

Before she could lose herself in the misery of another betrayal, the nurse Elizabeth had left with Fie came running from the room.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” she said. “She’s…” Then she shook her head and ran back into the room, Rune and Elizabeth at her heels.

Fie floated above the bed, her arms and head hanging. Her hair waved gently.

“Stefanie,” Elizabeth cried, and ran to her side.

The child’s eyes were rolled back, her mouth slack. She made no sounds. She looked eerily similar to the way Lex had looked when the witch’s laughter had assaulted them.

Rune ripped her phone from her pocket.

“Lex,” she said, when the girl answered. “I need you in Fie’s room
now.
”

“Impossible. I’m waiting for you outside Wormwood.”

“What? How the hell did you get to Wormwood? Get your fucking demon on and fly your ass here, Lex. Do it
now.
”

And she shook with the effort it took her not to call Lex’s demon.

Because in that room, at that moment, she felt the presence of Damascus.

She wasn’t sure if she needed Lex so desperately because she believed Lex might be able to keep her there, or if she was secretly afraid she’d be snatched away without Lex.

Her demon.

Or maybe she just needed a hand to hold.