Wormwood Echoes (5 page)

“You might be sick,” Jack said. “He fucking left you to figure out his own shit and you might be rotting into a pile of—”

“Dammit, Jack. Shut up,” she ordered.

But once again the crew was full of anger and stiff with betrayal, and she couldn’t defend the berserker from it. Didn’t even want to.

Only Lex stood firm in her loyalty for Strad Matheson. “He has his reasons. He loves Rune,” she said, once, and then kept quiet on the subject.

Rune feared that Jack, when—if—he saw Strad again, was going to pull his gun and blow the berserker away. He was that pissed.

It had just taken a little while to sink in.

A little while for them to realize he’d really taken off.

And the entire time she argued and fought and thought and worried, she listened.

Listened for the echoes.

Terrified she’d hear them.

She and the crew had been called to a werewolf versus vampire battle in the Moor, just a mile or so from Rune’s house. By the time they got there, the fight had broken up and only a small group of homeless people remained to tell the crew what had happened.

“Wolves were winning,” one woman said. She grinned, creating one deep dimple and faded blue eyes so full of mischief that Rune couldn’t help but grin back.

“Any humans?” she asked.

“Twelve,” the woman answered. “The vampires carried off twelve dead humans.”

Rune lifted an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of dead humans.”

“Weren’t no damn humans,” another of the homeless said. A man, his face a little more lined than the woman’s, his clothing a little shabbier.

He held his hands out to a trashcan fire that lit up the night and burned with crackling merriment. “And were only a couple of Others. You’re a fucking liar.”

Rune didn’t like the way he ran his cold stare over the homeless woman’s body.

“How long have you been out here?” she asked the woman.

“Just found my way to this spot tonight,” she answered, and pushed her red hair back under her fuzzy knit cap. “I was in the city but…” She hesitated, then shrugged. “I had to move on.”

“We got room for you here,” the man said. “Long as you keep your fucking mouth shut and…” Again, his gaze roamed her body.

The woman backed away just a little, her hands clutching at the bag she held. She glanced behind her into the shadows of the night, as though looking for an escape route should she need one later.

Rune didn’t like it.

Something about the woman was vaguely familiar, and it took her a few minutes to understand what it was. The homeless woman reminded Rune of her adoptive mother.

The clothes she wore, the knit cap with the faded pink flower on the front of it, even the gray sweater with the deep pockets.

And the red hair.

“Rune?” Jack asked. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

Raze stepped forward, sensing a threat, and drew the woman’s attention. “You sure are a big one, mister. What’s your name?”

Raze stared over her head and said nothing.

“Do you know what the fight was about?” Denim asked her.

She gazed at him for a long, silent moment before looking at Levi. “You are a lucky woman,” she told Rune. “To answer your question, pretty boy, no, I don’t.” She shook her head. “It was hard to figure out what they were upset about. But they dispersed almost before they assembled.”

Another man at her side cleared his throat and gave the woman a look Rune was unable to decipher.

“What?” Rune asked him.

He scratched his chin and refused to meet her stare. “We don’t need to be volunteering information to the law, is all.”

“I’ll need you to volunteer your names.” She glanced around at the rest of the vagrants. “Do any of you have anything to tell us?”

“We didn’t see nothing,” one of them said, tossing a disgusted look at the woman who’d talked. “Nothing at all.”

“Of course not,” Levi said.

“I’m Jill,” the talkative woman said. She nodded toward the man who stood beside her. “And I think this one’s name is Lou.”

Lou eyed the crew. “You ought to pay us for our information.”

Rune lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll send someone back with a bag of burgers, dude.”

“We’re not drunks,” he said, and spat at her feet.

“Hey now,” Jack said, giving Lou a warning shove. “You don’t want to do that.”

“Fuck off, you one-eyed bastard,” Lou said. “And keep your fucking burgers.”

“Shut up,” one of the quieter men said. “We’ll take them burgers.”

Rune gave him a nod. “You got it.”

“Rune,” Owen said, glancing down at his beeping phone. “It’s from the Annex. Eugene wants a meeting.”

But she wasn’t ready to leave. “Jill. Come with us. I’ll put you up in a hotel until you get things straightened out.”

“There’s nothing to straighten out,” Jill said, quietly. “Go mind your business, you and your team. I’ll make out okay. I always do.”

And in the end, Jill refused to budge and Rune had to leave. But she handed Jill a card with her phone number on it. “You need me, call me.”

How awful it was to leave a woman who could have been her mother on the cold streets of River County. How hard.

But Jill wouldn’t budge.

Rune stood in front of Lou for a long, long moment before finally, he looked away from the flames and into her eyes.

She dropped her fangs.

He stumbled back, away from the fire and almost into Jill. “What,” he said. “What?”

Rune stepped closer to him. “You hurt her, and I will feed you your dick as you scream and beg me for mercy. I swear it.” And she moved closer still. “Do you believe me?”

He nodded, fast and hard, his eyes wide. “Yeah yeah,” he said, wheezing. “Yeah yeah.”

She looked around at the entire group of vagrants. They’d fallen silent and watched with fear in their faces. “She’s under my protection. No one touches her. You got it?”

They all nodded, then stared at the ground.

“You don’t have to worry about us hurting nobody,” the man who’d asked for burgers said. “We don’t hurt nobody.”

Rune gave Lou one last look and turned away. “What message from the Annex?” she asked, as they walked back to their cars.

“Just for all of us to see Eugene immediately,” Owen answered.

Raze glared at nothing, his eyes glittering beneath the streetlights.

“What’s wrong, baby? Pissed that we didn’t get to fight?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I am.”

“Maybe Eugene will rectify that,” Denim said.

“You’re worried about Jill,” Lex said.

“I wonder what her story is,” Rune replied.

“I could have touched her,” Lex said, “but some get offended when I do that.”

“People like to keep their secrets,” Rune said, and refrained from looking at Owen.

“And that’s their right,” Jack said.

She shrugged. “Yeah. Sorry, Jack.”

“Sorry about what?” Levi asked.

“Quiet,” Rune said, and held up a hand. “Listen.”

The crew halted immediately, hands full of silver, ready.

“It’s…” Lex began, then stopped and frowned.

“A fight,” Rune answered.

The air was full of blood.

And she wanted it.

Suddenly, the street was teeming with Others—shifters, wolves, vampires—steaming through yards, bodies ramming houses, hitting, biting, clawing…

Fighting each other.

“Fuck me,” Rune whispered.

“What the hell happened?” Jack asked. “What’s happening?”

“Others against vampires,” Rune said. “It’s got something to do with the sickness.”

“It started with the vampires,” Raze said. “And the Others are going to try to cut it off at its source.”

“What do we do?” Lex asked.

Owen smiled, his gaze hot and eager beneath the battered brim of his hat. “We figure out which side we want to fight for.”

“We’re on the side of the humans in this fight,” Rune said. “Protect the humans. The Others need to have this out.” Then she grinned. “But I won’t order you not to pick a side and fuck somebody up.”

She dropped her fangs and shot out her claws, then ran with her crew into the fray of the battle.

She and her crew needed a fight, and it was their lucky night.

She’d had good intentions—to make sure no humans were caught in the middle of a vicious Other battle—but once she was in the thick of the fight, and blood was spraying, pain hitting her with comforting familiarity, rage and hunger took over.

Then all she wanted to do was release her monster and kill.

Feed, and kill.

So she did.

She didn’t discriminate. If it got in her way, she was either eating it or ripping it apart.

She lost herself in the glory and the gory, as did her crew.

It was what they’d been born for. What they thrived on.

And when the battle limped to a halt, it was because dawn would soon be breaking and the vampires had to hide from the sun.

Had it not been for that, the battle, which grew larger and more violent by the hour, might have gone on until the rotting sickness wouldn’t have had a chance to wipe them out. They were doing a great job of that all on their own.

Rune stood on piles of dead as the sun pointed red fingers across the sky. The bloody ground seemed reflected in the heavens, and for a long moment she had to grind her teeth and wait for the need to cry to pass.

The berserker hadn’t been there. He hadn’t come to help his crew, to wade into the battle with his familiar roar sounding and his deadly spear flashing.

And that hurt just a little fucking bit.

The streets were completely silent as the fighters still able surveyed the dead and began to think about the tasks ahead. They’d carry their dead and wounded home and those who had jobs would clean up and prepare for the workday.

Business as usual.

Except the panic had begun.

Rune stared out at nothing, her face and body itchy with blood and gore. She was sticky and filthy but the wounds she’d sustained by being careless were healing rapidly.

The high of the battle slunk away and left her empty and dejected.

Her mind was black.

“Rune,” Lex said, standing beside her. “Don’t let it take you.”

Rune moved her eyes, slowly, to look at the little Other. She said nothing.

“It’ll pass,” Lex continued. “The…” She spread her hands, struggling to find the right words. The words that would say exactly what she meant. Finally, she just shook her head. “Don’t let it take you.”

But the silence had fled and Rune was dark.

“Anyone hurt?” she asked, but her voice was dull.

“Nothing major,” Jack answered, watching her.

“The violence didn’t help,” she said suddenly.

Owen stepped forward and stood close, so close she had to crane her neck to look into his eyes. “Maybe the sex will,” he murmured.

And a spark of something interested and alive flared inside her. She shivered.

The twins, surprising her, came toward her and Owen, moving as though they had the exact same thought and intention. They stopped on either side of Owen and waited until he took his gaze from Rune to look first at Levi, then Denim.

“We’re not going to let you fuck her up,” Levi said, his voice almost too low to hear.

“She’s not herself.” Denim’s stare was so cold it might have frozen a lesser man into a block of solid ice. “Not yet. So you’ll back off.”

Rune opened her mouth, but no words came out. She was shocked, confused, and maybe just a little fucking relieved.

She realized something right then. The berserker had been her protector. And her excuse.

Not physically, really—though he had taken on that responsibility as well—but he had been there. For
her.

Who cared as much as he did about what might happen to her?

So when he left, she felt alone.

But she was
not
alone.

She smiled and hugged the twins to her, hard, and let herself find, for them, some peace.

When she stumbled out of her own misery and fear and took a look at her people, she saw that Jack and Raze and Lex watched her with the same look the twins held.

They’d known, and they were showing her. No matter that she might decide to take on Owen, no matter what she might do. They just wanted to let her know.

Even if she didn’t need anyone to protect her—she was a bad fucking monster—to them she was just Rune.

They loved her.

She glanced at Owen and he grinned at her, nothing much in his eyes but understanding. And some desire. There was that, too.

He said nothing.

“I’m going to talk to Eugene,” she told them. “You all go home and get some sleep.”

“Don’t be too long,” Lex said, “or Ellie won’t
let
us sleep.”

Rune entered the Annex still covered with blood and smelling of death, but her mood had lifted and she didn’t care even a little bit about the shocked looks thrown her way.

She rapped on Eugene’s door, walking in when she heard him call out.

He stood up quickly when he saw her. “Jesus, Rune.”

She grinned and lowered herself into a chair. “You’ll have to have someone clean this chair but I don’t feel like standing.”

“I’ll have it replaced,” he said. “I’m glad you came in. I got reports, but I wanted to hear from you.”

“Others were fighting the vampires. From what I could gather, the Others are pissed off and panicking because the vampires are spreading the rotting sickness.”

He nodded, then gave a long, slow blink.

“Well fuck,” she said. “What is it?”

“My people have been hard at work,” he said. “Coffee?”

“Yeah.” She waited impatiently while he called for coffee.

“Okay,” he said. “If the Others didn’t have the disease before the fight, they will have it now. The sickness is spread from humans to vampires through feeding. The vampires spread it to the Others through body fluids, blood…” he hesitated.

“What?”

“And air,” he continued. “It’s airborne.”

She felt herself pale. “No.”

He nodded, grim and solemn. “The Others don’t have a chance. They’re all going to die, and there’s not one fucking thing I can do about it.”

She shook her head, unable to take it in. Unable to accept it.

“The humans are carriers,” he went on, “but as far as we know, they don’t get sick. They pass it to the vampires through feeding—from what we know right now, the Others aren’t infected by the humans. They’re infected only by the vampires. So they’re right to blame the vampires.”

She glared at him. “No. They’re not.”

He spread his fingers. “I just meant the Others can’t catch it from humans. The humans are carriers, vehicles. The Others catch it from the vampires in every way possible. Contact, blood, air, touch, even. The vampires are like radiation. Being near them is lethal to the Others.”

“If the vampires don’t feed from the humans, they’ll die.”

“They’re going to die anyway.”

“How are the humans getting the disease in the first place?”

“A few of them were likely deliberately infected, and are spreading it to each other through the usual routes—contact, body fluids, sex, even picking it up from door handles and towels. It’s accelerated over the last few hours. The samples I had brought in are showing rapid decline.”

“You’ll have to do a press conference.” She was almost unable to make her numb lips move. “Keep the humans from panicking.”

She barely noticed when the coffee was brought in and handed to her. She drank half of it in one hot gulp.

“Rune.” He leaned forward. “The humans will panic, no matter what I say. They’re calling the sick Others
rotters.
The Others are panicking as well. River County is about to fall into chaos. Be ready.”

“What can I do?”

He was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said, finally, and then, “I would ask that you just try to stay alive.”

But he didn’t sound like he had any real confidence in her ability to do so.