Killing Land (Rune Alexander Book 8) (10 page)

“I’ll let you have a week,” Eugene said, as she paced in
front of his desk. “And that’s only because Will Blackthorne is right. You can
find some powerful recruits in Killing Land.”

“If I find people there who’ll fit in, I’ll consider them.”
She met his stare, and she didn’t look away. He did.

“I’m not your enemy, Rune,” he said, finally.

“You shouldn’t go.” Bill, who’d stood quietly staring out
the window, finally turned away from the view to face her. He walked to a chair
and sat down, wiping
a sheen
of sweat from his face.

Maybe he was afraid.

“A week,” Eugene said, mildly. “We’ll be fine.”

“The Next is coming,” Bill said. “I’m not sure it’s a good
idea to send her away.”

“It’s sixty, seventy miles,” Eugene exclaimed. “She can be
here when trouble starts. But there’s plenty of time. The Next is not ready to
attack. Not just yet.”

“You’re using her to get more fighters.”

“She’s meant to be used. She’s an Annex op.”

“Honestly,” Bill said, “I’m surprised she’s stayed with us
this long. She has a wanderer’s soul. And you’re not giving her the status she
deserves.” He stood slowly and winced, as though the mere act of leaving his
chair caused him pain.

“She hasn’t exactly stayed here,” Eugene stated. “She goes
out of the county often.
Rock County, Kentucky,
Skyll
.
She’s accustomed to fighting battles out of Spiritgrove.”

“Stop talking about me,” Rune said. “I’m right fucking in
front of you. And in case you’ve forgotten, I can run here faster than I can
drive. River County is safe.”

They focused on her.

“I just don’t think you should leave right now,” Bill said.
“You’ve just returned.”

“Are you paying attention, Bill? People are being eaten,”
she said, enunciating each word with exaggerated care.
“
Eaten.
By a monster.”

“We’ll send another crew,” he said. “You don’t have to go.”

“Another crew would die.” She crossed her arms. “You know
that.”

“Killing Land isn’t our problem unless it moves to River
County.”

“I have to go. I’ll be back once the cannibal is dead.” She
didn’t mentioned Gunnar, or the assassin’s belief that something—or someone—had
exited Skyll with them.

“Yes,” he said.
“Rune Alexander to the
rescue.”

She stared at him. “Bill. Come with me.”

“Sorry, no,” Eugene said. “I can’t spare him. Taking a
couple days off work is one thing. He needed the rest. He won’t get rest in
Killing Land, Rune.”

She ignored him. “Bill?”

He sighed. “I can’t, Rune.
Would if I
could.”

She frowned. “What the hell does that mean? You can come if
you want to.”

“Not if he wants to keep his job,” Eugene said, glancing at
Bill.

It seemed to her that something dark and secretive flashed
between them.

“I can’t.” Bill surprised her by taking her hand and
squeezing it gently. “Please come back, Rune.
When you can.
They don’t need you to save them as much as we need you.”

“This is my base.” She walked to the door.
“My home.
I’m always coming back to River County, no matter
where else I go.”

Neither man said a word.

Finally, feeling a little guilty and a lot uncomfortable,
she left the room. Damn Bill for making her worry and refusing to let her help
him.

But a fucking cannibalistic
monster,
dammit.

That was something big. Something she needed.

She needed a monster to battle, and one was being handed to
her.

River County had survived worse than Shiv Crew running a few
miles away for a little while. River County would be fine.

And Gunnar…

Gunnar was there.

And she knew where she’d find him. Gunnar could jump between
cemeteries but he couldn’t leave them. All she had to do was search the
graveyards of Killing Land and she’d find her ghoul.

If he wanted her to.

Her cell rang as she was leaving Eugene’s office.

“We found your lost vampire,” Jack said.

Roma, who’d been waiting in the break room down the hall,
tossed an empty potato chip bag in the trash and rushed out to walk beside
Rune.

“Where?”

“Simon Kelic has him.”

“Shit. How did Nikolai end up in River County?” Then,
“Kelic’s alive?”

“He’s a vampire.
So no.”

“Jack.”

“Yeah.
Kelic’s
back home.
He has half a dozen of his children left and they’re healing
fast. He says they’re nearly back to normal.”

“You talked to Simon?”

“Yeah.
He said to tell you to come
see him. Rune…”

“Yes?” She climbed into her car and as soon as Roma had
gotten into the passenger side and buckled up, she sped out of the parking lot.

“He’s not the Simon he was before the rot. He sounded
different. More like a vampire.”

“We’re all different, Jack. I’m headed there now. Meet me at
his house.” She hesitated. “Wear a stake belt.
Just in case.”

When she arrived at Simon’s house, she stood outside her car
for a long moment, watching his house.

It was quiet. The whole night was quiet.

She pulled her kill kit out of the back and buckled on a
stake belt, just as she’d asked Jack to do. Simon had been the most benign
master vampire she’d ever met, but he was still a vampire.

And he’d lost a lot.

She didn’t need Jack to tell her that Simon Kelic was
different.

Or that he was dangerous.

Angry.

Before she’d left, his favorite, an exotic young vampire
named Iker, had been sick. Simon would blame her for Iker’s death.

Simon would be bitter.

She sighed.

“I’ve got your back,” Roma said, and loaded her slingshot.

“That thing working for you yet?”
Rune asked.

“It will.” There was a hint of doubt and worry, but just a
hint. “It will.”

And just in case the slingshot failed her, she still had
Rune’s shotgun.

“Rune.”
Simon appeared in the dark
doorway of his house. “Come.”

She started to massage away the knot of uneasiness in her
stomach, then dropped her hand and strode toward the vampire master. “Simon.
I’m happy to see you’re alive.”

He didn’t smile. Once upon a time, he would have smiled and
there would have been a certain, almost human softness in his gaze.
No longer.

He stood aside and motioned them into the house, shutting
the door gently once they’d stepped over the threshold. “I’m glad you came.”

The last time she’d been in Simon Kelic’s house, his
children had been watching Shrek on a big screen TV. The house had been bright
and cheerful—almost like any household on the street—except, maybe, for the
naked bite junkies lying across the kitchen table, feeding the vampires.

She looked around, noting the darkness, the very few quiet,
somber vampires,
the
absence of bite junkies. “Iker?”
she asked, getting it over with.

Simon studied her for a long moment, his face
expressionless. “He’s in the basement.”

She put a hand to her chest. “He made it?”

“No. Not really.”

He didn’t elaborate and she didn’t push.

“Why did you want to see me, Kelic?”

He didn’t offer her coffee or make any attempts at
pleasantries, but got straight to the point. “The number of
Others
in the world has dwindled to…” He gestured.
“Next to nothing.
We’re being hunted and killed and no one cares any longer. Not that they ever
did, really.”

“I care.”

“You’re an
Other
. It doesn’t matter
what you think.”

She opened her mouth to speak,
then
closed it again. He wasn’t wrong.

“The humans now believe us more dangerous than ever,” he
continued. “When there were many of us, we wanted to fit in. There was a
certain safety for the humans in that wish. Now…things have changed. The humans
can hate us and persecute us and the world is okay with that.”

Simon Kelic had never looked like a vampire. He was medium
height and dark blond with a sparkling smile and a bland, kind face.

His face hadn’t really changed, but his eyes had. His
mannerisms had.

“You look like a vampire now,” she murmured, without meaning
to.

“We’re not staying here,” he told her, ignoring her words.
“I’m taking the children I have left and going to…” His hesitation spoke
volumes. He no longer trusted her. “Underground,” he finished.

“For how long?”

“Until the world rights itself.”

“That could be forever.”

“Yes.” He shrugged. “I have forever.”

She was strangely forlorn at the thought of him
disappearing, but dismissed the sadness. There was nothing else she could do.
“Where’s the vampire I brought from Skyll, Simon? I’ve come to fetch him.”

He nodded. “He told me he belonged to you. I didn’t believe
him at first. I just thought he was another vampire running from the world and
into my territory.”

“Where is he?”

“In the basement.
With Iker.”
His smile, when it finally came, was chilling.

Shit.
Gooseflesh erupted on her arms and she
shivered. “What have you done, Kelic?”

At her back, Roma moved closer.

His eyes widened. “Done? Why, nothing.
Nothing
at all.”

“Funny how I don’t believe you.”

He shrugged. “You know the way to the basement. Go collect
your vampire whilst I ready my children to run.” He nodded.
“Run,
run away.”

“Simon—”

“You think the bad part is over, Rune Alexander. You’re
wrong. It’s
coming
. You should run as well. Hide. They’re coming for
you. They’re coming for all of us.”

Once more, she shivered. The look in his eyes was…was mad.
Terrible.
“You’re insane,” Rune said, her voice hoarse and
so rough it hurt her throat. Vampires almost always eventually went insane.
She’d believed Simon Kelic would have many decades to go before he succumbed.

Iker’s death had sent him over the edge in a hurry.

He merely smiled.

“Who is coming?” she asked.

“The humans, of course.”
He seemed
to focus on her. “I always liked you. I would not want to see you trapped.” He
leaned forward, took her face in his cold hands, and put his lips against her
ear. “Run, child, and don’t stop. Even you can be controlled, and they know
it.”

“What do you mean?” she whispered.

“They know,” he said. “They know about the obsidian.”

Then he pushed her away, toward the kitchen and the door
that led to the basement, and when she turned around again, Simon was gone.

“What does he mean,” Roma
asked,
her eyes a little too wide.
“Obsidian?”

Rune took a deep breath.
“Nothing.
Let’s go get Nikolai.”

She was scared. For the first time since leaving Skyll, she
was truly afraid.

She felt it.

It’d taken Simon Kelic to say the words that would wake her
up.

And she felt the bad stuff coming.

Coming for her.

Gunnar, I need you.

He’d know what to do. He’d know what was happening.

She stopped at the top of the basement steps.

Maybe he’d known all along.

Maybe
that
was why he’d fled to Killing Land.
Wormwood would soon be overrun by hunters. By humans coming to massacre the
remaining
Others
.

Nice of him to warn her.
“Little
bastard,” she hissed.

“Rune?”
Roma’s voice was strained.

“Let’s hurry,” Rune suggested.

Because she felt it.

Time was running out for the
Others
.

For her.

Or maybe Simon’s madness had seeped into her brain. It could
happen, even though she wasn’t his child. It could happen.

She stopped walking once again and pressed the back of her
hand to her mouth.
“God.
I know nothing.”

But that was a lie. She knew the madness inside the house
was wrapping itself around her psyche. She knew she was susceptible.

She needed out of Simon’s house. Fresh air would clear her
head.

The basement wasn’t a dark, mean hole in the ground such as
Nicolas Llodra might have owned. It was a normal finished basement, well-lit,
carpeted.

It wasn’t the basement that was tortured and dark. What it
contained, though…

“Fuck me,” Rune said.
“Nikolai?”

“It didn’t work,” Kelic said, appearing from the shadows.

Rune spun around, her claws out. “The fuck did you do,
Simon?”

“Iker was the only thing that made living this life
bearable,” he explained. “I can’t exist without him. I tried to put him into
several other vampires. They died the true death. Your vampire was so very old
I had hopes that he’d be able to hold my Iker.”

“Simon. I’m so sorry for you.”

Simon shrugged, offering her a shameful smile. “It didn’t
work.”

“No,” she said. “It didn’t.” She closed her eyes, pity for
him overwhelming her.

“I borrowed the talents of a witchdoctor. Unfortunately, he
didn’t make it.” He nodded toward the middle of the room, where what appeared
to be a man was slowly deteriorating into a wet, smelly mess.

Nikolai was cuffed to the wall, naked, barely conscious.
What she supposed had once been Iker was on the floor at Nikolai’s feet. The
smell of rot and death hung in the air, but Iker had been gone long enough for
it to have dissipated somewhat.

Simon had wanted the rotted, dead Iker to possess Nikolai.
How, she didn’t know—but Nikolai probably wished he’d never left Skyll.

“I’m so tired of seeing bad shit,” she said.

“I’ll handle it,” Roma said. She pointed at Simon.
“You.
Don’t move.”

“I must take my children and flee,” Simon said, and turned
to walk away.

Rune watched him go, almost certain she’d never see him
again.

The silver cuffs weren’t locked. Roma, with a grimace of
distaste, pulled Nikolai’s wrists from them,
then
uncuffed his ankles.

His burnt skin stuck to the silver, stretching and ripping
as she pulled his limbs free. He fell to a boneless heap onto the floor but
didn’t speak.

“What do you need?” Rune asked him. As if she didn’t know.

He licked his lips.
“Blood.”

Without hesitating, Roma put her wrist to Nikolai’s mouth.
“Take it.”

“Roma,” Rune murmured.

“Don’t be shocked,” Roma replied. “I’m a practical woman. We
need to leave this place. You want the vampire to come along. He needs fed to
do so.” She shrugged, not even wincing as the starved vampire dug into her
flesh.

She casually stuck her slingshot into her pocket and
smoothed down her borrowed shirt, then glanced impatiently at Nikolai. “Thirty
more seconds.”

Her nonchalance was in direct contrast to Nikolai’s extreme
pleasure at finally being fed.

He pulled the blood from Roma’s
veins,
his eyes closed, and released a low, constant whine that bubbled with ecstasy.

Roma tapped her foot impatiently.

Rune shook her head. “Roma, you’re a freak.”

Nikolai pulled his mouth reluctantly from Roma’s wrist and
wiped his mouth. “She must fit right in with you, then.” He smiled. “Thank you
for coming after me. I fear I would not have lasted much longer.”

“Are you able to walk out of here?” she asked.

“Yes. I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.” He looked at
Roma. “Or you.”

“I did it for Rune,” Roma said.

“Let’s go. Roma, have your weapon ready and walk behind
Nikolai.”

“I’m healing quickly,” Nikolai said. “Why are you afraid,
Rune?”

She swallowed the lump of fear caught in her throat.
“Something’s going to happen.”

“Now?”

“I don’t know when. I just know
it’s
coming and we need to be ready.”

“The Others.”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath, trying to get some air in to
clear her head. “I smell it.
Change.”

“Perhaps I should have remained in Skyll.” He smiled, but
Rune caught a glint of something she was sure was homesickness in his eyes.

“I miss it, too,” she told him, as they took the steps back
up to the kitchen. “I don’t know why.”

“Because for us,” Roma said, “it will always be home.”

Rune’s breath caught. “No. This is home.”

“Skyll is in our blood,” Roma insisted.
“Yours
especially.
There will always be a part of you that longs for Skyll.”

“Or for the people you left behind,” Nikolai guessed.

She couldn’t argue with that.
“Doesn’t
matter.
And we have other things to worry about right now.”

“This
change
,” Nikolai said.

“Yes.”

“You realize what our futures hold,” Nikolai said. “Don’t
you?”

“I won’t go mad.”

“Madness is our destiny.”

“Yours, maybe.
I’ll make my own
destiny.”

Please. I can’t go mad.

“I wouldn’t have gone mad had I stayed in Skyll,” Nikolai
said, his voice soft. “I don’t believe I would have. You wouldn’t, either.”

“Shhh,” Rune said, holding up a hand. “Listen.”

They stood in the kitchen, listening.

They know. They know about the obsidian.

Her heart beat with quick, painful little taps, and her
stomach fluttered with dread and fear. She didn’t know what she was so afraid
of.

Only that she was.

She had always faced threats—both known and unknown—without
too much thought to her personal safety.

But she was afraid. She was afraid for herself.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“What’s
wrong?”
Roma hissed, impatient.

“I…” But she couldn’t say the words.
I’m scared
.

Something was coming for all of them, and she wanted to run
away and hide in a corner until it passed.

But she couldn’t.

And it wouldn’t.

“What do you hear?” Nikolai asked. “I hear nothing.”

He was a master vampire. If there was something to hear,
he’d have heard it.

“Nothing,” she said. “Let’s go.”

She’d have forgiven Gunnar the Ghoul everything had he
appeared at that moment to tell her, in the irritating way he had of telling
her everything without telling her anything, what the hell was wrong with her.

“You’ll hide out and heal at my house,” she told Nikolai,
once they were in her car and back on the highway. “I have a windowless safe
room where you can sleep.”

“I will be healed in two nights. Then I will go out into the
city as master vampire. This time, I will be more careful. Should the mad Simon
Kelic attack again, I will kill him. I was vulnerable and disoriented when the
path ejected me.”

“Simon no longer cares about you.” She began to feel better
as she inhaled deeply of the cold, fresh air.

“You’re right, I’m sure. Still, I will remain vigilant.”

“His vampires will be mad as well,” she said. “The madness
passes through covens even more quickly than the fucking rot did.”

“I will find my way, Rune Alexander. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m going to a place called Killing Land, Nikolai. Find me
there when you need me. It might be the only place you will be safe.
Sort of.”

“I’ll go underground,” he said, shrugging off her concern.
“If the humans go on a hunt—”

“They’re already hunting,” she said, grimly. “But it’ll get
worse. Simon knew something.”

“
You
know something,” Roma said, turning away from
her window. “You feel it.”

Rune shivered. “It’s so fucking cold.”

Roma leaned forward and turned the heater on. Then she sat
back and rubbed her slingshot, over and over.

“Wasn’t Jack supposed to meet you at the vampire’s house?”
Roma asked, suddenly, and her words carried a portent of something so terrible
Rune nearly swerved off the road and into another car.

“Shit,” she whispered, and yanked her phone from her pocket.

But her fingers refused to cooperate and she dropped the
cell into the floor.

“I fucked up.” She didn’t know how, but she had.

“Jack,” she cried. “Jack.”

But Jack didn’t answer.