Shiv Crew (16 page)

“What?”

“Someone is playing with us. If you
don’t want to go to Cross with this, you have to take it to Rice.”

Yes. She did. Should have already.
Maybe it wouldn’t have saved Lex, but maybe it would have. “Fuck me,” she whispered.

She wanted to close her eyes and
hide, just for a moment. Just reset her mind. But she couldn’t.

She stared straight ahead, her eyes
burning.

Just let her be okay.

She thought she had the wrong
address. The place on Rue Canyon Road was a ramshackle house squatting on a
tall black hill at the edge of the town. It looked like a scene from a horror
movie instead of a clinic.

Jack shrugged and stepped out of
the car, his hand on his gun.

The area was so
Other
she
could feel it, like a clammy second skin. That hill was not a place for humans.

One smallish, thin tree stood like
a sentinel in the yard. Its branches were bare, skinny arms that reached
imploringly for visitors.

She shivered. “Do you feel that?”

Jack kept his hand on his gun, his
gaze sharp and constantly moving. “Feel what?”

The small hairs stood up on her
arms like needles. “Draw your gun, Jack. The monsters are watching.”

He didn’t ask questions, just drew
his gun and walked with her, slowly, toward the front of the house. There were
no sounds.

It was spooky as hell. That hill,
that tree, that house…none of it belonged in a human’s world.

“Eerie,” Jack murmured.

The front of the house boasted a
rickety porch on which sat an ancient rocking chair. A weak yellow light
screwed into the porch ceiling was of little help in chasing back the shadows.

Raze’s truck was sitting in the
gravel drive. Neither of the twins’ cars was there, so Raze must have brought
them all in. She punched Raze’s number into her cell, relieved when he answered.
It was as though she’d traveled into another universe. She hadn’t really
expected to hear his voice.

“We’re here, but I don’t see a
clinic. House on a hill?”

“Yes. Knock on the door. I’ve let
them know you’re coming.”

She banged on the door, a cop’s knock
she’d picked up years ago. She eased to one side of the door, Jack to the
other.

Before she could knock again it was
pulled open by a calm older man wearing a black suit. His hair was silvering,
his eyes bright blue in the wrinkles of a not unfriendly face. “Hello.”

She gave him a quick nod. “My name
is Rune Alexander and this is Jack Slaughter. I was told you were expecting
us.”

He stepped back, pulling the door
open wider. “Please.”

It was just rude to have their guns
out when Raze had assured them they were welcome. She slid her gun back into
its bed and heard Jack do the same.

When she stepped over the
threshold, a little prickle of unease hit the back of her neck. She resisted
pulling one of her shivs, although holding a bit of sharp silver in her hand
would have made her feel immeasurably more confident.

“Follow me,” he said.

“What’s your name, sir?”

“William.”

He wasn’t going to volunteer any
information, and she didn’t think William was anyone she needed to worry about.
“Can you take us to our friends?”

“Yes.”

Talky sort.

The living room was minimally
furnished and clean. A few touches had been added in an attempt to make the
space look cozy, but there was an abandoned air about it that the little vase
of fake flowers and the doilies couldn’t obscure.

William led them through a small
kitchen equally as bland as the living room. In the kitchen were two doors. One
led to the back of the house and one opened up into a large elevator.

William motioned them inside,
pushed a button, and withdrew before the doors shut.

When the elevator stopped seconds
later and the doors opened, she stood for a moment, gaping. “What the fuck?”

They were in a fresh, clean,
well-lit…hospital. Sort of. The rickety old house sat on top of a perfectly
functional clinic. She guessed the house was a smokescreen to divert nosy
humans.

The place was quiet, but a series
of familiar dings came from a room down the long white hall. Someone coughed.
Someone else cried out in pain. Everything was hushed.

“I guess we follow the sounds,” she
said.

Across from them were brown double
doors with an EMPLOYEES ONLY sign. Behind them was the elevator they’d ridden,
and to the left was another hall.

“Does it seem like a week since we
left the car?” she asked, her voice quiet.

“Yup.”

A nurse stepped out of a room and
spotted them. “Hello. Rune and Jack?”

“Yes.” Rune shook the woman’s hand
quickly. “How is Lex?”

“Come with me. The doctor will
speak with you about the patient.” She marched down the hall, wasting no time.
“Here you go.” The door made no sound when she pushed it open.

“Thank you.”

The nurse nodded and offered a
quick smile, then pulled the door shut behind them.

Raze stuck his head around the
curtain. His face was pale and his eyes bloodshot. He slipped toward them, his
stare going to Rune.

“Lex?” she asked.

“She’s asleep. The doctor gave her
something that knocked her out not long after we got here. Denim and Levi are
with her.”

She pushed back the curtain, her
gaze going automatically to the twins. They looked up at her at the same time.
Denim’s scar stood out vividly, his eyes liquid green fire in a face that had
gone two shades paler since the last time she’d seen him.

Levi looked confused. “
Why
,
Rune?”

She closed her eyes for a long
moment, gathering her courage, then looked at Lex. The girl’s body seemed
shrunken, barely making a lump beneath the sheets.

“He’s mocking us,” she said, when
she could talk. Whoever
he
was.

Lex was covered with bites and cuts.
Her flesh was jagged and torn, bruised and swollen, her features misshapen. Silver
restraints had melted into her skin, leaving deep burn furrows behind once
they’d been removed.

Her attackers had been ready for
her and no matter how good a fighter Lex was, silver made her just another
woman, vulnerable to evil.

Look familiar, Rune?

Bags hung on poles at the head of
her bed. One of them contained blood.

“She lost so much blood,” Raze said,
watching her. He was too controlled, his voice flat. Rune recognized the signs.
He was beyond rage.

All of them were going to need a
piece of Lex’s attackers.

She walked to Lex’s side and stared
down at her, forcing herself to look at the battered girl. She wanted to hold
her hand or stroke her hair but was afraid to touch her.

“I’m sorry, Lex,” she whispered. They’d
all promised to protect her. They’d failed.

She didn’t realize Ellis had
entered the room until she heard sobbing and looked up to find him huddling
against the wall, his fists to his eyes.

“Ellie…” She went to him, pulling
him into her arms. “We’ll get the fucking monsters, baby. I swear.”

He looked at her. “It’s my fault. I
should never have left her.”

“You couldn’t have known. No one
could have.” Except her, maybe. She’d had the clues.

But he shook his head. “No. When I
was leaving her house I saw a strange car go slowly by. I knew there was
something off about that car. I
felt
it. I even made a joke about it.” The
expression in his eyes was one she was familiar with. Unbelievable guilt. “But
I left. Just fucking left.”

She didn’t want to see him that
way. Not Ellis. He couldn’t lose the part of himself that made him better than
the rest of them. “Don’t, Ellie.”

He walked to the bed, his hand too
tight around hers. He forced himself to look, and though she wanted to pull him
back she knew better. He began shaking the moment he saw her battered face. “Oh
no. Oh God, no.”

She’d never been so helpless in her
life. She couldn’t fix Lexi, couldn’t help the twins, couldn’t take away
Ellis’s guilt and pain.

Levi stood and strode around the
bed, snatching Ellis away from Lex. “I’ll take him into the hall so he can…”
His voice broke and he said no more, just took the distressed Ellis away.

“What did the doctor say?” Rune
found a clear spot on Lex’s forehead and caressed it for a second with a gentle
finger.

The doctor chose that second to walk
in. She was dressed in street clothes but had a stethoscope around her neck.
She also had the same tired lines on her face Rune had seen on a lot of
doctors. She gave them all a terse nod and got straight to the point.

“I’m Dr. Haas. I don’t know if
she’ll live.” She glanced at Denim. “I told you that earlier. I still don’t
know. She’s declining despite the blood.” She looked at the clipboard she
carried. “It’s as though her body is
fighting
the blood.”

“What type of blood is it?” Rune
asked.

“Human, of course.” She waited for
a second, and when Rune said nothing more, she continued. “If I could get her
to vibrate, she might be able to help herself, to at least
try
to heal.
Right now…”

Raze shifted his weight from one
foot to the other and his hand went to one of his shivs. “You will help her.”

The doctor crossed her arms and
stared him down. “Don’t threaten me, big man. I’ve known Lexi since she was a
child. Tended to her when her mother devised new ways of torturing the girl. I
will do what I can.”

“You should have taken her from her
mother
,” Jack said.

Finally a sign of emotion in the
doctor’s eyes. Misery flashed for a second, then was extinguished. “I wish it
had been that easy.”

“Don’t judge,” Denim said. His
voice was grim, his eyes dull.

Rune clenched her teeth. “And don’t
you
give up on her. Don’t you dare give up on her.”

He looked away, ashamed. “Never.”

“You all should go home.” The
doctor looked at Denim. “I have your numbers. I’ll call if there are any
changes.”

“Denim’s stare was hard. “I won’t
leave her.”

“But—”

“No.”

The doctor shrugged. “Everyone
else, out. I need to examine her.”

Rune went to Denim. “I’ll get some
food and coffee for you and Levi before I go.”

He shook his head, watching Lex.
“The nurses bring us coffee, and neither one of us can eat.”

There was nothing else she could
do. “Call me if anything changes. I don’t care what time it is.”

“I will.”

She left the room, Jack and Raze on
her heels. In the hall, Levi and Ellis stood against the wall. Ellis’s face was
buried in his hands, and Levi had his arm around the smaller man, offering what
comfort he could.

She took Ellis’s hand, urging him
away. “Come on, love. We’re going home.”

Levi’s smile was tired. “She’ll be
okay, Rune.”

“I know. I know she will.”

God, please.

After a quick ride up the elevator
and a nod good-bye to William, Jack and Raze climbed into their cars for the
drive home.

Ellis had taken a cab to the
clinic. “I didn’t trust myself to drive,” he’d told her.

He climbed into Rune’s car, and she
had to remind him to put his seat belt on. He fumbled with it until she finally
reached over and snapped it in for him.

“Can I stay with you tonight,
Rune?”

“Of course.”

“I just really don’t want to be
alone.”

“I know, baby. Me neither.”

“I keep thinking how if I hadn’t
walked away—”

“Stop it, Ellie. This is in no way
your fault.”
And if you hadn’t walked away, you might be lying there with
her.

“No? Whose fault is it then?” He
held his hands to the warm air coming from the vents, reminding her of Amy.

“I don’t think the attack was random.
It all goes straight to the man who’s tormenting the Others.”

He grabbed on to the distraction.
“Tell me everything.”

She told him what he didn’t already
know, about the attempt to delay them at the graveyard, Z’s concussion, Amy’s
capture. “Llodra gave Amy permission to tell us everything she knows, not
realizing she already had. So that’s disappointing. He had nothing to tell me.”
Then she remembered one thing. “Except he knows I’m not…”

Ellis looked at her. “Human? I’m
only surprised it’s as big a secret as it is. My guess is because you’ve buried
that part of you so deeply even the Others have trouble sensing you.”

“Not me. My monster.” A familiar
feeling unfurled inside her stomach. Shame, anxiety, and dread, all mixed into
one soupy mess. “I keep thinking I can force it out of me. Kill it. But that
never happens.”

“Because it’s not some physical
being inside you, Rune. It
is
you.”

“I killed my father tonight. Well,
Jack blew his head off, but I took his heart.” She kept her voice flat and
tried to ignore the jabs of pain the memory brought. “He forgave me.”

“Now if you could only forgive
yourself.”

She drove in silence for a few
minutes. It began to rain, a cold, thin rain that made her shiver to see it. “Could
COS be at the root of everything that’s happening?”

“If the Church of Slayers is
directing Preston, they’re going to do everything they can to destroy the
Others as well as anyone getting in their way.” He looked at her. “You’re an
Other and you’re getting in their way.” He grabbed her arm, his eyes a little
too wide. “You be careful, Rune. You be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me, Ellie. Maybe
Lex was a warning to us. Nothing happened until we started looking into this
shit with Preston.” She squeezed the steering wheel.
Who the fuck
are
you, Preston?

As soon as they arrived at Rune’s
house she went to shower while Ellis put on a pot of coffee. The scents of
frying bacon and eggs tempted her to cut her shower short.

For a few minutes as she drank her
coffee and ate the meal Ellis had cooked, she could almost pretend Lex wasn’t hovering
near death.

“Eat something, Ellie.”

“I had a big dinner with Lex.” He
took a drink of his coffee, then grimaced. “I don’t know how you drink this
stuff.”

“Why did Sherry see my monster? Why
was I able to keep it hidden for so long and now suddenly I can’t control it?”