Obsidian Wings (12 page)

Rune was on the platform with Cree almost before she’d
realized she’d even moved.

The girl screamed and screamed, her body contorting as her
mother forced her into a shift despite the silver fighting it.

Loraine won.

Blood and other fluids, wet and goopy, splattered Rune. She
turned her head in disgust as an ill-smelling glob of mucus landed on her cheek
before sliding off.

Fin was suddenly beside her, his horrified gaze glued to
Cree.

The bird flopped in the silver bonds, unable to adapt to the
forced shift. Huge wings beat weakly at the air, fanning Rune’s face and
blowing through her hair.

The more she struggled, the more her bonds tightened.
Finally, the bird was choked into unconsciousness by the silver cutting into
her throat.

She slumped to the floor, her wet wings covering her.

“Shit,” Rune whispered. She was accustomed to cruelty, but
the bird’s torment was appalling.

Fin leaped the couple of steps to the fallen bird, his face
a mask of pain. He pushed his hair behind his ears, forgetting even to hide his
scars. “Cree. Cree…”

“Take her wings,” Loraine called. “Do it now while she is
unconscious.” There was a note of weariness in her voice, but she didn’t waver.

Fin tried again. “Loraine, please. No more.”

“She can’t be excused simply because she’s my daughter. I
have responsibilities to my people.” Her voice grew weaker and more tired as
she tried, most likely unsuccessfully, to convince herself she had no choice in
Cree’s punishment. “Take her wings.”

The birds were silent, but an air of eagerness and
excitement surrounded them. Had Loraine decided to reverse Cree’s fate, the
birds would have rebelled.

Cree stirred and moaned softly, then opened her black eyes.

“Shhh,” Fin said, and petted her wings. “I know it’s a lot
to ask,” he said to Rune as she crouched beside him. “I know she delivered you
to the men who tortured you. But she thought she had no choice.”

“She had a choice,” Rune replied. “She didn’t have to take
me.” She turned her lip up. “And you. All of you. You knew what was happening
to the twins, and yet you did nothing.” She shot her claws out. “You will all
fucking die.”

“Quickly now,” Loraine called, ignoring her threat.

Rune glanced down at Strad. He stood tall and still,
waiting. Watching her.

“I’ll give you a choice,” she told Fin. “I can take her
wings, or I can kill her. Decide.”

Cree made a sound and Fin lowered his ear close to her face.
Then he straightened. “She says she can give you Bach Horner. She’ll trade you
for her wings.” He held up a hand when Rune started to speak. “She’s banished.
She’ll live the rest of her life trying to find a way to live without her
people. She’ll get away with nothing. But she won’t live through the night
without her wings.” His stare was desperate and hot. He pulled a blade from his
pocket. “If you take her wings, you’ll have to kill me first.”

Rune gave a harsh laugh. “Do you think I won’t?”

“I don’t know what else to do,” he said, his voice so heavy
with pain Rune had to look away. “I love her. She’s more than you know. If not
for her, do it for the location of your enemy. She’ll give him to you.”

“You have one minute,” Loraine said. And maybe, maybe there
was a spark of hope in her voice. Maybe she hoped Rune would take the choice
from her.

Maybe.

Or maybe that was what Rune wanted to believe.

“She’s not being punished for what she did to you,” Fin
said, his voice so low she could barely hear him. He continued as she leaned
closer. “They want to pacify you and the humans. Cree is being punished because
she had Lara killed.”

“What?”

He gestured to the scepters below. “They don’t care about
you, or the twins. They care about rules and power.”

She shook her head and pressed her fingers to her temples.
“She is responsible for the bird being tortured and nailed to the
slaughterhouse?”

“I can’t explain now, but if you let her keep her wings,
I’ll find you tonight. I’ll tell you everything.”

Fuck. She closed her eyes for an instant, and when she
opened them, she’d made her decision. COS’s location was more important than
her need to destroy Cree Stark. She would take care of Cree another time.

“Give me his location.”

Fin stared at her as he fought to absorb her words. Then,
“What?”

“I said, give me fucking Horner’s location.”

“You’re…”

“Yes. Yes. I’ll let the bitch keep her wings. I’ll cut her
loose.” She leaned closer to him. “But if you’re lying to me, I will find you.
Both of you.”

His nod was quick and jerky. “Thank you. Thank you.” He bent
over Cree. “Tell me.”

She must have, though Rune understood nothing she said.

“He’s in Rock County,” Fin said, his voice low and fast. “In
the Camp.”

Rune nodded. Without hesitating, she stood, slid her claws
under the silver around Cree’s throat, and sliced through the rope.

“No,” someone yelled, and the others took up the scream. The
birds began shifting and Rune knew she had maybe ten seconds before they were
on her.

Fin sliced through the silver around Cree’s ankles, and when
she was free, he shifted. He pecked at Cree’s face, leaving wounds that started
bleeding immediately.

Cree got up.

Rune dropped her fangs, welcomed her monster, and jumped
from the platform to the ground below.

The scepters didn’t try hide. They didn’t shift, either, but
stood in a line in front of the platform to watch their birds fight for them.

The birds were huge, with deadly, sharp beaks and blade-like
talons, and they had no fear. They wanted the fight, the blood, the excitement.

“Kill them,” Loraine ordered, and the birds attacked.

“We’re here,” Lex shouted, running to Rune, her face bright
with savage joy.

The berserker didn’t hesitate. Resolute in his loyalty for
Rune and Shiv Crew, he slashed his way through bird after bird, his roar of
rage wrapping Rune in familiarity and comfort.

She threw herself into the midst of the battle, knowing that
with every slash of her claws she was one step closer to Bach Horner.

Each member of the crew was a fighter—mean, special,
bloodthirsty.

But they were missing three of their men and the birds were
no less bad than Strad had warned.

The crew, battered and bloody, attacked from the air by
screeching beasts, was losing the battle.

Strad had warned her.

Rune saw him thrust his spear through the wing of a slightly
small male bird, pin him to the ground, and say something she couldn’t begin to
hear, even with her sensitive ears.

She lost track of him as she became occupied with an
enormous bird about to take her head off with talons the size of short swords.
When she managed to look his way once more, both Strad and the pinned bird had
disappeared.

She’d pulled her crew into a battle they simply couldn’t
win. There were too many of the enormous birds, and they torpedoed the crew
from the air as the ones on the ground used beaks and claws to try to rip their
opponents apart.

Then the attacks began to lessen. She understood, even as a
talon shredded her left arm, that the birds were retreating.

“Stand your ground,” Loraine screamed. “Destroy them!”

But the birds deserted their scepters, and they did it in a
hurry. In seconds, they were gone.

As the echoes of their cawing voices faded away, the crew
stared at the line of scepters.

“Shift,” Rune said. “And fight.”

Strad had saved them. What he’d said to the bird he’d pinned
she might never know, but he’d saved them.

And the playing field was a little more level.

Loraine spat at Strad, her eyes narrow. “You. You did this.
You’re more of a traitor than Cree. I should
never
have taken you in.
This is how you repay me?”

Bloody and huge, the berserker moved one step closer to his
crew. “I trusted you, and that was my mistake. You threw in your lot with COS.
Now shift and fight, or I will cut you down while you stand there making
accusations.”

There was doubt or hesitation in his voice. Still, Rune
understood him. He would be haunted by guilt for the rest of his life—not just
because he’d have to destroy the scepters, but because he’d allowed them to
hurt his crew. To hurt Rune.

But they all had their crosses to bear.

“We’re birds,” Loraine said. “We take care of our own.
Outsiders do not concern us. You do not concern us.”

“I was one of you,” he said.

She released peals of laughter, and the laughter did not
sound forced. She was genuinely amused. “You were never one of us. No matter
that we saved your life and kept you from the ones who abused you, you were
always human.” Her voice softened. “You were
never
one of us. We are not
obligated to you, Strad.”

Strad paled, but shook off Loraine’s callous blow. “You made
a deal to harbor COS and hide my crew for some land,” Strad said, his voice tight.
The rage was obvious, but he was controlling it.

Loraine shrugged. “We didn’t hurt your people. We needed the
land. The church was generous in their terms. You, of all people, should know
we do what we must to survive in a human’s world.”

Lex, maybe afraid the scepter’s words would sway the
berserker, or make him shoulder even more guilt, stepped up beside him. “You
allowed COS to torture the twins,” she yelled. Then she pointed at Rune.

“Lex, no,” Rune said, but Lex said it anyway.

“They beat Rune. They
raped
her. And you let them do
it. You’re as guilty as COS. More so. Now shift and fight, motherfuckers.”

Before she’d finished speaking, Strad strode to Rune and
grabbed her arm. “Look at me,” he said, his voice raw.

It was maybe the hardest thing she’d ever done. She looked
at him, and gave him the truth.

The berserker blanched. “Fuck,” he whispered. “No.”

She said nothing. She didn’t have to.

Behind her, someone touched her shoulder.

“Rune?” Raze asked.

Without waiting for the scepters to shift, Strad roared, his
voice so full of pain Rune flinched, and he went after the birds.

They shifted almost before she could blink—seven scepters
against six Shiv Crew members.

As one, they attacked the man they considered the biggest
threat at that moment—the berserker.

They knew what he could do.

He threw himself at them and they circled him, their wings
beating the crew back as they took on Strad Matheson.

But the crew would not be stayed.

Rune ripped through wings much thicker and stronger than
they looked, her claws slicing through them like a razorblade through cloth.

She had to get to Strad.

The birds backed off the berserker when they were
overwhelmed by the crew, and Rune caught a glimpse of Strad as a bird attacked
him from behind and Loraine, it had to be Loraine, sliced open his face.

He turned to take care of the bird at his back, not even
appearing to notice the blood pouring from his face.

Rune went after Loraine.

No matter how angry he was at the birds, no matter how much
he hated them, he shouldn’t be the one to kill the woman who’d helped raise
him.

So Rune did that for him.

The rest of the fight was a blur. The birds, especially the
scepters, were in no way weak or afraid of a fight. The scepters might think a
common battle was beneath them, but when it came down to it, the birds seemed
unstoppable.

One of them grabbed Jack in its lethal talons and before he
could cut his way loose, the bird flew into the sky with him.

Jack never made a sound.

“No,” Rune yelled, running. There were two other scepters
still fighting, and the crew kept them occupied as Rune called upon everything
inside her to save Jack.

The bird dropped him.

She was a monster, true, but she was pretty sure there was
no way she could catch Jack. No way she’d be able to save him.

Except she had to.

She jumped. She left the ground like she had springs
attached to her feet, and then…

She soared.

But she wasn’t flying, exactly. More like a guided jump. A
hell of jump, straight from the ground twenty feet into the air, and then she
snatched Jack from his rapid descent and into her arms.

They fell, the heaviness of Jack’s limp body forcing her
into a fierce plummet back to the ground.

She was going to collide with the hard earth, and she had a
bad feeling it was going to hurt like a motherfucker.

The impact knocked Jack from her grip, and the world spun
crazily as she tried to climb to her feet. She lurched, then fell to her knees.

“Rune,” Lex said. “Steady.”

“Jack,” Rune gasped.

“He’s good,” Raze said.

She knelt on the ground and grabbed her head, waiting for
her equilibrium to sort itself out, and for the dizziness to subside.

Strad knelt beside her. “I’m here.”

“The scepters?”

“Dead.”

“Somebody get Jack.”

The fight was over.

“I think we need to let the birds come back,” Rune said.

Strad looked almost comically surprised. “What?”

“The scepters ruled them. The scepters are dead. One thing I
learned is the birds will make better allies than enemies. If we encourage an
alliance…”

“The birds may not honor it even if they agree to it,” Strad
said. “If another group offers them a better deal...”

“It’s something to think about,” Rice said.

“If they think it’s in their best interest, they’ll do it,”
Strad told her. “But you will never be able to fully trust a bird.”

“Me trusting a bird is not something you’ll ever see,
Berserker.”

“What about Cree and Fin?” Ellis asked.

“No. The birds banished Cree Stark. She can stay the fuck
banished.” She put her hands on her hips and stared Strad down. “I hope that
won’t be a problem for you.”

He sighed. “Rune, Cree was like a little cousin to me. She
was a pain in the ass. Not a lover.” He held his hand up as she started to
speak. “I wouldn’t let her come back even if you wanted her to. She’s dead to
the birds, and she’s dead to me.”

But there was a gleam of sadness in his eyes.

It had been two short days since the battle with the birds,
and the crew was still healing. But other than the pain and occasional bleeding
where she’d been twice staked, Rune was already healed.

The wound Loraine had given Strad dissected his left
eyebrow, ran down his cheek, and didn’t stop until it reached his chin.

Rune flinched every time she looked at the raw, healing
wound. She didn’t want to see any of her crew damaged and hurting.

But especially not the berserker.

They hadn’t talked yet, but she knew it was time. And she
dreaded it.

He needed her to feed from him, but he wasn’t going to
relieve his need until they talked. “I want your forgiveness more than I want
to ease my addiction,” he’d said.

“Berserker, I—”

“No,” he said, his gaze tender. “No, sweetheart. When you’re
ready.”

She wanted to bite Strad. Wanted to.

But she couldn’t. Not yet.

She didn’t want to be forced to remember that night on the
mountain. Strad was devastated that the slayers who’d raped her had already
been dealt with.

“Some of the ones who tortured the twins are still out
there, Berserker. Take out your rage on them.”

“Count on it,” he said.

The Church Of Slayers would die.

She and the twins exchanged a long look. She hadn’t
forgotten her promise to them. They’d hunt the slayers, and they’d kill them.

Yes, the church would die.

“Are we ready for Rock County?” Jack asked. The next battle
was yet to come.

“We could wait a day or so,” Rune said.

“We’re good,” Owen said, putting his coffee mug on the
conference room table. “I don’t think Horner has gathered his forces yet.”

“Yeah,” Rune agreed. “And I’d like to find him before they
start trickling in.”

“I’m not taking chances,” Rice said. “Backup crews have
agreed to help us out. My sources tell me COS is calling in slayers from all
over the US. We’ll be ready.”

“Rock County would be a good place for them to hide a COS
army,” Raze said, leaning against the wall. “We have a couple spies there but
it’s a big county.”

Rune swallowed the last of her coffee. “Then let’s go smoke
out the sons of bitches.”

Ellis sat at the table beside Levi. He rose with the rest of
them and didn’t argue once about the twins not being ready to go.

Rune knew they weren’t ready, but it was going to be up to
them to choose to go or stay home. They wouldn’t appreciate her mothering them,
and they damn sure wouldn’t appreciate her ordering them to stay in their beds.

When they were ready to face COS, she had to be ready to let
them.

Even if she didn’t want to.

“I’m going too,” Ellis said.

“Ellie,” Levi said, his voice soft. “You are not.”

But Ellis crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “I will
stay in the car with a gun, but I
am
going. I’m not ready to let you
wander far, Levi. Not ready.”

“Rune,” Levi said. “Tell him.”

She shrugged. “When he gets that look, he’s not backing
down. And I’d rather have him in the car with some of the crew than following
along behind us.”

Levi sighed, and Ellis smiled. He clutched the deadly fang
through the fabric of his shirt, a gesture that was fast becoming a habit.

Join the club, Ellie.
She pressed her fist against
her stake wound. They all had their telling tics and mannerisms and habits.

“Be careful,” Rice said, rising as well. “And when you can,
update me.”

Elizabeth wasn’t there—she was undergoing a home visit that
morning. Her dreams of adopting Fie and George were one step closer to becoming
a reality.

They piled into three vehicles and headed to Rock County.

Rune had been eager to search the Camp since Fin had told
her that’s where she’d find them. He might have been lying. But maybe he hadn’t
been.

Still, if she hadn’t taken time to relax and recover for two
days, her crew wouldn’t have either. No matter how injured they were, they’d
have loaded up with weapons and followed her to Rock County.

So she ground her teeth, paced a lot, and waited.

Fin had also promised to find her two nights ago and explain
the circumstances of Lara’s torture and death.

He hadn’t shown up, and she wasn’t surprised.

“Even if Cree Stark had Lara killed,” Rice had said, “it
doesn’t explain the second Other who was nailed to the bar.”

He was right, but she was too preoccupied with finding
Horner to devote a lot of energy to the murders.

“I don’t think they’re in the Camp,” Owen said. He was
riding shotgun. Ellis, Levi, and Lex were in the backseat.

Rune agreed, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “Even if
they’re not in the Camp, they could be in the county.”

“The place is full of Others,” Owen said. “Misfits,
outcasts, fugitives. If they saw COS anywhere near that county, they’d tear
them apart.”

“Horner got the birds on his side,” Lex said. “He could have
bribed Rock County Others.”

“The birds were different,” Levi said. “They don’t care
about the Others, and they don’t care about the humans. They were up for
grabs.”

The crew drove their small caravan toward the Camp, noting
the differences that had happened already. The county had an abandoned, sullen
look to it, and as they drove down roads surrounded by dark woods, they caught
glimpses of darting figures, glowing eyes, and the occasional tall columns of
gray smoke rising into the air.

When they arrived at the Camp, no one moved as they stared
through the windshield at the high fence.

“Let’s go,” Rune said. She ignored her reluctance and
climbed from the car, shaking off, with minimal success, the sense of
foreboding that hit her.

“Nothing good ever happened in the Camp,” she muttered.

“You saved me in the Camp,” Lex said. “That was good.”

Rune grinned at her as Raze pulled his truck in behind her
SUV, Strad right behind him. “Yeah. Yeah, that was good.”

Ellis let down the window of the SUV. “Be careful. I’ll be
right here. If you need anything, call me.” He held his cell up and shook it at
them. “Call.”

She did not want to leave Ellis alone in the car. The last
time she’d done that, he’d been taken by Nicolas Llodra. She squinted at him,
undecided. Finally, she opened the door. “Come on, Ellie. I can’t leave you
here alone.”

“I have a gun,” he said, but hastened to jump from the car.

“You’d be more likely to shoot yourself than the bad guy,
baby.”

And then, with her entire crew at her back, she took a deep
breath and walked into the Camp.