Obsidian Wings (13 page)

The deeper they went into the Camp, the more changes they
noticed. The buildings that remained had become quarters for the homeless, the
outcasts, and the fugitives Owen had mentioned.

Campfires dotted the area. Tents were everywhere, and she
spotted two decrepit campers, both with rusty, overflowing garbage cans beside
them.

There was the distant sound of a barking dog, but other than
that, the area was quiet. Too quiet.

“They’re watching us,” Jack said, his voice a low rumble.

“They’re afraid,” Raze said. “These people aren’t going to
harbor COS.”

“Unless they don’t know that Horner is COS,” Rune said. “He
fled with the doctor and maybe a couple slayers. We killed the rest of the
fucks.” She surveyed the silent area, her senses on high alert. “They might not
know he’s COS.”

“Makes sense,” Owen agreed.

Strad walked up to stand beside her. “Let’s let them know
why we’re here.”

She nodded. “Ellie. You’re the least threatening of all of
us.”

He hurried to her side. “Okay.” He cleared his throat.
“Hello, everyone?” he called. “We don’t want to harm you in any way. We’re
searching for Bach Horner, a human who leads the Church of Slayers.”

They waited.

Ellie opened his mouth to try again when Jack put a hand on
his arm and nodded toward one of the buildings.

A man, around six feet tall, wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a
bandana wrapped around his head, eased through the door and stood with his arms
at his sides. Both hands held guns, but he kept them close to his legs. “COS
isn’t stupid enough to show their faces around here.”

Rune caught movement behind him as more Others stood ready
to either fight or run. “You wouldn’t know he’s a slayer.”

“Maybe not, but we’d know if he was human. Humans don’t hide
out here.” He smiled. “It’s not safe for them.”

“Shit,” Rune muttered. “COS isn’t here.”

She’d known it was a longshot.

“We’re Shiv Crew,” Ellis said. “We’re on your side.” He
pulled a card from his pocket and headed for the stranger before Raze grabbed
the back of his shirt and hauled him back.

“Ellis,” Strad said. “Stay put.”

“I know who you are, tiny man,” the Other said. “No COS
pieces of shit are here. If they were, we’d have already killed them for you.”

More Others crept from tents and buildings, from behind
trees and piles of junk.

And suddenly, the Camp was teeming with people. They watched
the crew with suspicious stares, some of them holding weapons, some of them
poised to shift.

“They may be hiding somewhere else in the county,” Rune
said. “But we were told they were in the Camp.”

“Then you were lied to,” the man said.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I get that feeling.”

Strad looked around at the Others. “Any ideas where a few
humans might be hiding?”

No one said a word.

Finally, the man in the doorway joined them. He offered a
hand to Rune, and as soon as she accepted it, the Others relaxed.

“My name is Michael. You freed my brother from the Camp,” he
told her. “I owe you. If I could give you COS, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

She nodded. “Those bastards are hard to find.”

“We’ve heard some bad shit is coming to River County,” he
said. “We’re willing to fight at your side, time comes for it.”

“That’s so nice,” Ellie exclaimed.

Rune grinned. “We’d appreciate it. We plan to take COS
down.” She held his gaze. “Even if we have to do it one man at a time. COS is
over.”

His eyes sparkled. “Open season on the slayers. Got it.”

Ellis frowned at her, but she ignored him. “If you hear
anything, call me. It’s a big county, and we think Bach Horner and a few of his
men are hiding somewhere, waiting for more COS to arrive. Six days from now,
they’re going to gather in River County.”

“What are they planning?”

“What they’ve always planned,” Lex said, vibrating slightly.
“To take over the world.”

Michael’s stare lingered on Lex. “We can’t let them do that,
little girl.”

Raze took a step closer to the man, his face darkening.

Michael sized him up, then gave a crooked grin and stepped
back.

“We don’t plan to,” Lex replied. “And I’m not a little girl.
I’m Shiv Crew, and I will peel your face off if you fuck with me.”

Raze’s eyes lit up and he smiled his extremely rare smile.
He grunted in satisfaction and crossed his massive arms.

Michael transferred his attention to Rune, sniffing the air.
He tilted his head. “What exactly are
you?
”

She said nothing.

“Sorry,” he said, palms in the air. “That was rude.” He
turned to walk away, but Ellis hurried to him and handed him a business card.
“The numbers for RISC are on that card, and mine is on the back. Please call if
you get any new information.”

Michael glanced at the card, then slipped it into the font
pocket of his jeans. “You got it. Good luck, Shiv Crew. I hope you find the
bastards.”

“Michael,” Rune said, “if you want to help us with COS, send
some scouts. We need to flush him out before the new moon.”

“Six days,” he said, then nodded. “I’ll do everything I
can.”

“Thanks.” The crew followed her from the Camp. “I didn’t
think they’d be in there,” she said, “but I still believe they’re somewhere in
this county.”

“We could search all day and not find them,” Denim said.

They stood by the cars, and before they could get inside,
three wolves and a shifter streaked from the Camp.

“Scouts,” Rune said. “If Horner is here, the Others will
find him now that they know to look.”

Levi wiped sweat from his forehead. It wasn’t hot out.

“You okay?” Rune asked him.

He nodded, but his face was pale and his eyes were hollow.
“I know he’s here, Rune. I feel him.”

“In the camp?”

“I don’t know. Just here. Somewhere close.”

She frowned. “What do you mean you feel him?”

“I know I’m not Other,” he said, and again, wiped the sweat
from his forehead. “But I…I sense him here.”

“The blood,” Lex said. “Rune fed Levi.”

Not only had she fed him, but she’d fed
from
him.

“She fed me as well,” Denim said, drawing closer to his
brother. “But I don’t feel anything.”

Levi looked at him, and the dawning realization in Denim’s
eyes made Rune unable to breathe.

“What is it?” she asked, pretty sure she really didn’t want
to know.

But the twins just stared at each other and said nothing.

“Levi feels Horner because Horner…attacked Levi. And when
you gave him your blood, it made him sensitive,” Lex said, her voice wooden.

And then Rune understood what Lex meant by
attacked.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.

She hadn’t been the only one raped on that mountain.

Ellis clutched his talisman. “Levi. Oh, God, Levi. Can I hug
you?” Then, without waiting for an answer, he ran to his love and threw his
arms around him.

Levi looked at Rune.

She couldn’t tear herself away from his drowning gaze but
she couldn’t bear the agony, either.

At last, he closed his eyes, freeing her.

“I’m ruined, Ellie,” he said, his body stiff in Ellis’s
embrace.

“No,” Ellis murmured. “You’re Shiv Crew. You’re the love of
my life. And most of all, you’re mighty. Lex was right. You and Denim, you’re
mighty, and COS
cannot
make you fall. No one can.” He pulled away and
cupped Levi’s thin face. “You hear me?”

But Levi was not convinced.

Jack cleared his throat, clapped Levi on the shoulder, then
got them back to business. “So Horner is here.”

“Somewhere,” Rune said.

“Maybe I can sniff him out.” But Levi’s eyes said he’d much
rather go home. “The closer we got to Rock County, the stronger the feeling.”

It must have been the worst feeling in the world.

Rune shook her head, her insides quaking with rage. “Let’s
go home. Michael will call if they pick up the trail.” She wanted to get the
twins out of there.

But the twins had other ideas. “Rune,” Denim said, his voice
steady. “We want to kill Horner.”

So she capitulated. “I understand.”

Personally, she didn’t care who killed the bastard. She just
wanted him dead.

“Then let’s go see if we can find him,” Levi said.

But the closest they got to Horner that entire day of
searching was to find the house he’d been staying in.

“He was here,” Levi said. “We lost him.”

“If it comes down to it,” Rune said, “we know he’ll be in
River County trying to call a fucking demon in less than a week. We’ll get him
then.”

“He thinks his minions will protect him,” Denim said.

Strad, his scarred, stitched face making Rune flinch with
pain, smiled. “He’s wrong.”

“Let’s go home,” Rune said, checking her phone. She hoped
Michael would hand Horner over. But if the Others found any trace of a COS
member, they’d most likely destroy him themselves.

Tired and hungry, the crew went back to River County. They’d
get COS. It was just a matter of when.

As she pulled into her driveway, her cell rang. She glanced
at the display, and when she saw
unknown
on the screen, let it go to
voicemail. She was an Other and the leader of Shiv Crew, but she was not immune
from telemarketers.

“I’ll order delivery,” Lex said, and she and the twins
disappeared into the recesses of the house.

Rune made coffee and drank two cups before heading to the
shower. The shower did nothing to settle her nerves, and after she wolfed down
the dinner Lex had waiting, she buckled on some weapons and went for a walk
around the Moor.

As she walked the dark streets she was constantly watchful,
unable to shake the itch between her shoulder blades or the anxiety tying knots
in her stomach.

The longer she walked, the louder a voice inside her mind
screamed at her to run. There was danger near. She was in trouble.

“Fuck,” she muttered. Her capture and time in the cage had
made her paranoid. She didn’t like it.

So she walked more slowly, forcing herself to amble along
like nothing bothered her, nodding hello to the people she passed.

She would not let COS make her afraid.

Even though the world had picked up on her weakness, her
terrible weakness, she would not be afraid.

“Hey, sexy.” The voice, male and thick, came from a darkened
doorway she was walking by.

Suddenly and intensely angry, she stopped and probed the shadows
with her Other gaze, trying to see the man who’d spoken. “What do you want,
sexy?
”

He took a couple of steps toward her. “I want…” Then he
peered across the sidewalk at her, held up his palms, and melted back into the
darkness. “Nothing,” came his voice. “Nothing at all.”

Feeling somewhat better, she decided to run. Running would
work off some of the nervous energy plaguing her. She needed a fight. A
consuming, bloody fight. That had always been her—

She heard the click and whirr of a vgun a millisecond before
a dead on shot sent a splinter through her back.

Into her heart.

“Once a-fucking-gain,” she muttered, even as the pavement
came up to scrape half the skin off her chin.

She heard the hollow echoes of running feet, and then the
street was silent and empty.

“Sorry,” a smooth male voice said, and her attacker was upon
her.

But something was different this time.

It hurt. Oh, it hurt.

But she could move, think, and…

With a hoarse growl she turned, her crazy vampire speed not
slowed by the splinter. Before he could react, she had him by the throat.

His eyes were like pieces of shining steel through the holes
in the black mask he wore. “I was told staking you would control you,” he
whispered, his voice hoarse and unfamiliar.

She smiled. “Once upon a time.” She pulled him close to her
face, her fingers digging into his throat. “Or maybe someone wanted you dead.”

“Maybe.” His voice was even. He didn’t sound remotely
scared, and only a little resigned.

“The church send you?”

“Church?”

He wasn’t even Other. She could smell everything that made
him human, and he smelled delicious.

She dropped her fangs and went for his throat.

Just as she sank her teeth into him and the sweet rush of
blood gushed into her mouth, he put a gun under her chin and blew half her head
off.

It took her and her monster a few short minutes to halfway
heal the gunshot wound, and seconds more to shake off the fog.

By then he was gone.

She got to her feet and felt for the splinter he’d shot into
her, grunting with relief when the tip of it jabbed her searching finger.

She took a deep breath, clenched her teeth, and pulled the
thin stake from her body.

She’d been splintered, and there she stood, holding the
wooden spike in her hand.

Wooden.

“I’ll be damned.” She stared into space, ignoring the
curious faces that peered from the shadows. She’d been staked and it hadn’t
hurt her.

Because the splinter hadn’t been obsidian.

Word would spread quickly. Those who thought they’d found
Rune Alexander’s weakness would now assume she’d become immune to staking, and
that,
by God, would make the sons of bitches stop trying.

COS had likely hired the would-be assassin to take her out.
And when the thought entered her mind, she realized they wouldn’t have stopped
with her.

“Fuck,” she yelled, and though she needed badly to feed and
had been injured, it didn’t slow her down.

She reached her house in two minutes. “Lex,” she yelled,
barreling through the front door. “Lex?”

Lex ran from her bedroom, her hair standing up in a dozen
different directions. “What? What?”

Rune put a hand to her chest. “You’re okay. Twins?”

Lex ran, Rune at her heels, to the twins’ room. They pushed
open the door and the twins sat up at once.

“What’s wrong?” Denim asked.

Rune swallowed and took a moment to calm her racing heart.
The abused organ beat fast and hard, and it hurt.

Despite that, she grinned. “I was attacked on the street a
few minutes ago, and I was afraid COS had sent—”

“What?” Ellis popped up like a jack-in-the-box. “Oh my God,
you’re covered with blood.”

She frowned and peered at him. “Ellie, what are you doing on
the floor?” At least he’d thought to bring a thick sleeping bag.

“He wouldn’t listen to me,” Levi said, rubbing his eyes. “I
told him to go home.”

“You also told me I could get into bed,” Ellis said. He
stood and studied Rune. “Where are you hurt?”

“I was shot,” she told them. “And
staked.
”

“But you’re…” Lex gestured.

“Yeah. I was staked with wood. Obviously the only thing I’m
sensitive to is obsidian. And that’s a secret we need to keep.”

“But the birds knew to use obsidian,” Denim said. “Didn’t
they?”

She shook her head. “The birds use obsidian for everything.
It was my bad luck they used it to make a splinter.”

“And Llodra?”

“Llodra just knew.” She didn’t look at Ellis. She still
hadn’t told him that Nicolas Llodra had been her father.

Levi patted the bed. “You need to feed.”

But she backed away. “I want to clean up. Go back to sleep.”

She was going to call the berserker.

It was time.