Shiv Crew (17 page)

Ellis didn’t bat an eye at her
abrupt subject change. “Usually when you have trouble controlling yourself,
it’s soon after you’ve fed.”

She dropped her fork. “I do not
feed
,
Ellis.”

“When I’m forced to give you blood.
Through a bag. Into your veins. That’s not feeding, of course. No, sir.”

She stared at him with narrowed eyes.
“It’s not the same thing. Even humans get blood when they have trauma. I just—”

He interrupted her. He’d heard her excuses
a dozen times. “When you…
get blood
, it makes you stronger. Makes your
monster
stronger.”

One more reason to deny myself.

She stood and scraped the little
bit of leftover food into the garbage disposal before tossing the dishes into
the dishwasher. “Come on, Ellie, let’s get some sleep.” She was running on
fumes.

She had nearly drifted off when he
brought her back from the edge with a question.

“Do you know how you felt when you
looked at Lex, saw her lying there like that?”

She shuddered. “Yes.”

His voice was soft, thick with
tears. “Multiply that by a hundred. You might get close to how I feel when I
have to stand at this very bed, looking down at you.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

He turned toward her, his face
close to hers. “Swear to me you’ll never do that again. You’ll never let some
monster hurt you.”

“I…”

“Please, Rune. Please.”

“I swear. For you, Ellie.”

“No, no. Not for me. For
you.”

“For me,” she lied.

“Levi. How is Lex?”

She held her cell to her ear as she
drove to the hospital to see Z and Amy. The early morning was cold and gray,
and she had a sudden craving for summer color and heat.

She’d dropped Ellis off at his
house and promised to keep him updated on Lex. He would be at the office all
day, but most likely he’d be there without her. There were too many things
going on for her to consider sitting behind her desk.

“She’s not doing well, Rune.”

Shit.
“The same?”

He hesitated. “She’s worse.”

“Fuck.
Fuck.
”

“Yeah.”

“I’m heading to check on Z and Amy.
As soon as I’m finished, I’ll head to the clinic.”

She clicked off, her gaze going
again to hear rearview mirror. She recognized Strad Matheson’s enormous black
GMC truck. He’d been tailing her ever since she’d left her house. Obviously he
didn’t care that she knew he was following her, or else he’d have found
something a little less conspicuous to drive.

The son of a bitch needed to back
off. The last thing she wanted was the berserker reporting her every move to
fucking Jeremy.

Why Jeremy had decided Shiv Crew
needed to be spied upon was a mystery. It didn’t make sense, but she had other,
bigger things to sort out. She put that one in a compartment for later.

Most likely it was just Jeremy
being an asshole. He was so good at it.

She ignored Strad when she locked
her car and strode into the hospital. Well, almost. She took a moment to salute
him with her middle finger. Childish, yes, but she wasn’t worried about what he
thought of her.

He waved at her, his white grin
flashing.

Hoping Amy would be in a helpful
mood, she went to her room first. She’d visit Z on her way out.

Amy was in more than a good mood.
“Rune.” She waved Rune over, her face animated.

She had a visitor, an older man
with sad eyes and gray hair. Amy had his chin and mouth, and Rune knew at once
this was the alcoholic father.

He stood when she entered, and she shook
his hand. “Good to meet you, sir. You must be Amy’s father.”

Amy squealed. “How’d you know?”

“You have the same mouth,” Rune
said. “How are you doing, baby?”

Amy’s multicolored hair seemed to
have brightened, probably due to the fact that she’d washed it for the first
time since she’d taken up with the vampires. She looked twelve years old.

“I told my dad all about you and
Shiv Crew. He thinks I could be Shiv Crew material.” Her tone was light, but
her eyes, when she looked at Rune, were completely serious. Hopeful.

Shit.

“Well, baby, you never know. You
just let them take care of you for a while and relax.”

“I’m going back home.” She blushed
and looked away from Rune, as if her confession was an embarrassing development.

Rune took her hand and squeezed.
“That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

“I’ve straightened up,” her father
said. “I’m going to do better by my girl.” He glanced at Rune’s shivs. “There
isn’t a better knife thrower than me. I wouldn’t mind taking a practice throw
at Nurse Sharon’s big ole—”

“Dad!” Amy looked at Rune and
rolled her eyes.

Rune smiled, winking at Amy. “Sir,
if you wouldn’t mind, I have some police business to discuss with Amy.”

“Well,” he said, grimacing as he
got to his feet, “I’ll just go find some coffee.”

“Are you coming back?” Amy’s voice
was heartbreakingly eager. “Come back in a few.”

He hesitated, then went to her
bedside to kiss her forehead. “Yes, honey. I’ll be right back. You want
anything?”

“A Mountain Dew?”

Rune got to the point as soon as he
left the room, hoping to be finished before he found his way back.
He’d
better
come the fuck back.
“Did you think of anything new?”

Amy leaned back against her pillows
and began plucking idly at her sheet. “I’m bored out of my mind, Rune. When are
they going to let me out of here?”

“It won’t be long. I imagine
they’re waiting for some test results. Amy…”

“Yeah, okay. But once you have
everything you need, you’ll probably never talk to me again.”

Rune smiled. “I wouldn’t count on
that. Shiv Crew isn’t finished with you yet.”

The girl brightened. “Promise?”

Rune hesitated. “Sure. Promise. Now
talk to me, baby.”

“I thought of one thing that might
help. You know where you found me in Blackfire?”

“The school. Of course.”

Amy lowered her voice. “There’s a
field behind the school, and on the other side is an old bridge. I saw a man
there once, fucking a wolf.”

Rune narrowed her eyes, drawing
back. “How’d you know it was a wolf and what does this have to do with—”

“I know because she half shifted
right in the middle of the sex. It was gross. The dude was hurting her.” Her
face dropped. “If you don’t trust me, I’m not telling you anything else.”

“I’m sorry. I know I can trust
you.”

Amy shrugged. “I guess.”

“Go on.”

“RISC came in to question me.”

“Yes.”

“The one dude, Cross.”

Rune suddenly found it difficult to
take in enough air. She cleared her throat and dug her nails into her palms.
“Jeremy Cross, yes.”

“I’m pretty sure he was the guy
fucking the wolf.”

She could only stare at Amy for a
minute, hoping rage wasn’t showing in her face.
Calm, Rune. Calm the fuck
down.
“Pretty sure?”

“Well, it was at a distance,” Amy
said, frowning. “It looked like him. But here’s the part I wanted to tell you.”

Rune shifted from one foot to the
other, her hands shaking. “Okay.”

“It’s pretty well known that
there’s a man abusing the Other women. He likes to tie them up and beat the
fuck out of them. Does terrible things to them. When he’s finished he lets them
shift so they can heal.” She shrugged. “He gets off on it. Maybe Cross isn’t
this guy.” She looked at Rune, her eyes steady. “But maybe he is. You should
check it out.”

Rune could have easily broken down
right there on the spot. “
He likes to tie them up and beat the fuck out of
them.”

Compartmentalize, Rune. Save it
for later.

She cleared her throat. “That’s
very helpful. The other thing I need to talk to you about. Lex was attacked.”

In one of her lightning-fast mood
changes, Amy gasped and put her hands to her cheeks. “Oh my God! That blind
girl? Who did it?”

Her reaction was sincere. She
hadn’t known or heard anything about it, which probably meant Llodra wasn’t
responsible. Not that Rune had really suspected him in the first place. “She
was attacked while we were in Wormwood, talking to Llodra and getting you out.”

Amy’s eyes darkened, and she
started to climb from the bed. “No.”

“Amy—”

“You’re going to kill him, aren’t
you? After you get everything you need from him, you’re going to kill him.” Amy
drew back her fist, thought better of it, then looked toward the closet. “I
need my fucking clothes.”

Rune grabbed her shoulders. “Calm
down. I’m not going after Llodra. I don’t believe he had anything to do with
Lex’s attack. I just need to know if you’ve heard anything about…” She
hesitated, not wanting to put ideas in the girl’s head. “COS?”

Amy opened her mouth, then snapped
her now tear-filled eyes to something behind Rune.

Sure Amy’s father had returned,
Rune let go of the girl and turned to ask him for a minute more. But it wasn’t
Amy’s father.

It was the berserker.

He had slipped into the room and
leaned against the wall, his face blank.

How much did you hear, you
fucking bastard? Oh shit, if he told Jeremy…

“Get the fuck out, Matheson.”

“I have a question for the girl.”

“Again?” Amy wailed. “I already
told you everything.”

He smiled. “Oh, I doubt that.”

“If you don’t want to talk to him,
tell him to fuck off. You’re not under arrest, Amy.”

“I’ve been cooperating,” Amy said,
climbing back into bed. “I like Strad. I don’t like Cross. He’s not a good person
even if he’s not…” She looked knowingly at Rune. “You know. Besides, they need
to know the vampires aren’t the ones killing the humans.”

Rune could have explained to her
that it didn’t matter. Jeremy was determined to purge the vampires. But she
didn’t. Let Amy think she was making a difference. “You have my cell number.
Call me if you think of anything else.”

She threw Strad a cool look and
sauntered past him. She was ready for it when he shot a hand out and grabbed
her arm—so ready that before he could complete his grasp she had a shiv to his
chest, right above his heart.

“
Whoa
,” Amy said.

She didn’t think he’d be too quick
to move, especially since she had another shiv pressing into his balls.

“I don’t like when people grab me,
Berserker. This is the only warning I’m going to give you. Next time, I’ll take
one of your nuts. Understand?”

Fucker didn’t look scared. That
made her mad, so she pressed the shiv into his chest just enough to draw blood.

He narrowed his eyes. “I, too, have
a warning. When a woman is this close to my cock, one of two things is going to
happen. I’m going to whip her ass, or I’m going to consider it foreplay.” He
put his hands on his hips, insultingly unconcerned. “Which do you prefer, Ms.
Alexander?”

Amy clapped her hands, laughing.
“He won’t hurt you, Rune. I’ve talked to him before. He just likes to pretend
he’s all mean and shit. But
oh my God
.”

Both Rune and Strad looked at the
girl to see what she was so excited about.

She pointed at them. “You two…you
kind of
look
alike. All that wavy black hair, big blue eyes…you look the
same, in a different way.”

Rune gaped.

“Oh not like family, or anything,”
Amy continued, “but like…warriors from the same village. Imagine if you had
babies. They’d be
gorgeous
.”

It wasn’t bad enough that Strad
insulted her with pretty much every word he’d spoken, but Amy just made it
worse. As she debated the merits of explaining to Amy that she wasn’t worried
about Strad hurting her—he should have been worried about her hurting
him
—Amy’s
father ambled back into the room.

Or tried to. Rune and the berserker
were blocking his entrance. And he had a nurse right behind him.

Rune sighed and put her shivs away.
“Another time, Berserker.”

“Looking forward to it.” His voice
was a deep rumble, and now that Amy had mentioned it, he really wasn’t a bad-looking
man. Just…she didn’t like him.

She carried her anger to Z’s room.
Everyone she passed hugged the wall and stared at her with cautious eyes. She
was not displeased. Amy’s
“he won’t hurt you”
still echoed in her mind.

Little bitch.

Z’s bed was empty.

She went to the nurse’s station,
grabbing the arm of a busy guy in scrubs. “Where’s Z?”

“Pardon?”

“Zeveriah Kader. Where the f—” She
bit the word off and started over. “Where is he?”

He looked regretful. “He signed out
two hours ago.”

Dammit.
“Thanks.”

She strode toward the exit,
punching in his number as she walked.

He answered on the first ring and
didn’t wait for her to speak. “I am too fine to be lying there in that ugly-ass
hospital gown, sweet thing. I had to get out of there.”

She sighed. “Where are you?”

“Heading home to clean up, get a
few things done, then to the clinic to see Lex and make those boys take a
break.”

“They won’t leave her, Z.”

“You headed that way?”

“Soon as I check in with Mitch.”

“Okay.” He clicked off.

Her phone buzzed. “Mitch. I was
just calling you.”

“Can you stop in at the office for
a few minutes? I know you’re anxious to visit little Lexi.”

She was surprised by his
magnanimity. “I can swing by. How are things?”

“There have been a couple calls,
but RISC took care of them. Nothing major, except…”

“What?”

“I’ll talk to you when you get
here.”

“See you in a few.”

She had a bad feeling.

But then, where was the unusual in
that?

The automatic doors opened and she
walked through, sliding her phone into her pocket.

“Oh my God!”

She twirled around at the loud
voice, a hand on the shiv at her side. Only a woman and small boy stood behind
her, and neither of them looked especially dangerous.

Staring with wide eyes, the woman
dug into her handbag and came out with a pen and a second later, a piece of
paper. “You’re Rune from Shiv Crew!”

Mystified, Rune glanced around as
the doors slid open and a couple walked in. “Is something wrong?” she asked the
lady.

“Can I have your autograph? Oh, and
can I have a picture with you?” The woman shook her cell at the couple. “Can
one of you take a picture of me and Rune?”

The man took her cell. “Sure, sure.
If you’ll return the favor.”

Fucking
what?
Rune, still
trying to wrap her mind around what was happening, stood with the woman and let
the man take her picture.

Then the couple put their arms
around her and waited for the lady to take a picture of them with Rune as well.

It was at that moment the berserker
chose to make an appearance. She groaned, understanding what would happen
before it actually did.

“My autograph,” the lady with the
kid cried when Rune turned to run.

Fuck me.
Rune ground her
teeth. She was blushing furiously. She could feel it, and that made her blush
harder. Strad stood with his arms crossed, a half smile on his hateful face.

Four new people, one of them a
nurse, joined the crowd.