Shiv Crew (18 page)

“Oh my
God
,” the woman
screamed again, catching sight of Strad. “It’s another one of them! Please, let
me get a picture of you and Rune together? Oh, and then me with you?”

“I have to get to work. But I’m
sure Mr. Matheson will be more than happy to take care of you.”

He met her gaze. His own was dark,
but amused.

She took a quick second to gloat as
the little knot of people converged on Strad, then got the hell out of there.

She arrived at the office, still
smiling over the berserker getting stuck with the autograph seekers, and reeling
over the fact that people wanted their autographs.

Mitch had been busy making them
some sort of dark celebrities, and he was pretty damn good at it.

She sat on the corner of Ellis’s
neat desk. “Lex is worse, baby. Mitch asked me to come by, and then I’m going
to see her.”

He turned away from his monitor,
his unsmiling face lined with worry. “I’ll go too.”

“Do you want a ride?”

“If you don’t mind. Seeing her like
that…”

“I know. I’ll be back.”

At the door she stopped and told
him about the incident at the hospital. “I still can’t believe it.”

He grinned, his eyes a little
brighter than before. “That’s fabulous!”

“Yeah. Right. Wait until they’re
asking
you
for photos and autographs.”

“They won’t want mine. I’m not like
the rest of you.” He didn’t seem envious, just matter-of-fact.

“You’re better than the rest of
us,” she said, and went to talk with Mitch.

Mitch pointed to a chair when she
entered his office. “Have a seat, Rune. First of all I want to let you know
we’re doing everything we can to find the man who attacked Alexis.” He shook
his head, his face mournful. “Terrible thing, that. Just terrible”

He’d hung a couple of new pictures.
One was a photo of him shaking hands with the governor. Jeremy stood on one
side of them, the police director on the other.

The other was an enlarged, framed
photo of Shiv Crew, standing onstage at River Run Hall.

“Like it?” His smile was proud.

She really did. “Yeah. It’s great.
It’d be better if Ellis had been in the picture, but it’s awesome.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Still
smiling, he opened a large envelope and pulled out a photo. “I had one made for
each of you.”

She took the photo, staring down at
a moment captured about a million years ago. Things could change in an instant.
Lex had looked so happy, so vital. And now…

He must have seen the change in her
expression. “I’ll catch you up and let you visit Alexis.” He cleared his
throat. “There is some evidence that the Dark Others have been brought here.”

She shivered, just the slightest
bit, as a cold chill ran down her spine
.
“For what?” Fucking Dark Others,
adding to the already overwhelming shit going on in River County.

And even before he opened his
mouth, she knew what he was going to say.

“To destroy our Others,” he said.

Suddenly it all made sense. “COS is
behind it all. They have to be.”

“We don’t know that.”

“What makes you think they’re here
to take out the River County Others?”

“The fight at Wormwood, for one.
After you left, the vampires who didn’t run were wiped out.”

She frowned. “Shifters can’t kill
vampires in a fight.”

“Maybe not in a fair fight.”

She clasped her photo with shaking
hands. “What the fuck did they do?”

“The shifters had guns hidden in
Wormwood. Once the vampires were deep inside, the shifters took human form and
shot them full of silver.”

Others killing Others.
“Why?” she asked. “Why would Others let humans hire them to kill their own
kind?”

“Same reason humans kill their own
kind,” he said. “Greed. Evil.” He shrugged. “Because they can.”

She sat down. “I have to tell you
something.”

For some reason, he didn’t look
surprised. “I’m listening.”

“I think I know who hired the Dark
Others.” It took her only a few minutes to tell him everything she knew about
Preston. She rubbed her temples when she was finished and gave him time to
absorb the information.

“You kept a lot from me,” he said
at last.

“Yes. I wasn’t sure I could trust
you.”

“Now you are?”

She shrugged. “Now I have no
choice.”

He let it go. “Preston. You have no
idea who he might be?”

“No.”

“Not even a suspicion?”

She frowned and stared at him for a
long moment. “I said I didn’t. If I knew who the bastard was I’d have him in
custody.”

He stood. “Go check on Alexis. I’ll
update you when I can.”

She stood, feeling lighter after
sharing the burden. At the door she turned back to him. “You’d better not be
Preston, dude.”

He crossed his arms. “Ditto.”

Touché, Mitch. Touché.
But
she said only, “Karin Love…”

He nodded, slowly, and leaned back
in his chair. “She’s being questioned.”

“Like that will do any good.”

“You never know.”

“Seems like a stretch to think she’s
running them from death row but not impossible.”

He shrugged. “Stranger things have
certainly happened. It could be…” He hesitated, as though afraid of saying
something that was mere conjecture.

“Go on.” She leaned against the
doorframe.

“She could have groomed one of her
followers. Prepared them for this. They want to rid the world of Others and…”
Again, he shrugged. “Karin Love is nothing if not determined. And smart.”

“Oh my God.” She clutched her
photo, hard. “Please tell me you don’t suspect the twins.”

They stared at each other for a
long, silent moment. Finally, he dropped his gaze, tapping his desk with
nervous fingers. “No, not really.” He looked at her once again. “But it’s not
outside the realm of possibility.”

“Yes, Mitch, it is.”

He sighed. “We have to consider
everything, Rune. That Karin might somehow conduct the Dark Others from death
row seems pretty damn improbable too.”

“You have to trust
me
now.
The twins are not involved with COS. I don’t know who the fuck is or why the
Others she spent her life tormenting would be deliberately involved with her.”
She shook her head. “That’s just…crazy.”

He smiled. “I know you need
everything make sense, Rune, but sometimes…” He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s just
not going to.”

“Fuck them. After I check on Lex
I’m taking the crew and hunting the sons of bitches down.” She smiled and felt
it like a block of ice upon her face. “I’ll keep some of them alive for
questioning.”

But Mitch was already shaking his
head. “You’re to wait for the orders, Rune. I have to speak with Rice and
Jeremy. I’ll call you and let you know what to do.”

She turned away. “Later, Mitch.”

“Rune—”

But she ignored him and strode down
the hall to fetch Ellis.

Her phone buzzed just as she
reached his desk. “Yeah?”

It was Denim. “Lex is bad, Rune,
but she’s awake. And she’s asking for you.”

“On my way, baby.”

“Hurry.”

She drove like a maniac, terrified
she wouldn’t make it in time.

Ellis held on to the edge of his
seat, his face pale. “Let her be okay,” he said, over and over.

“She’ll be okay, Ellie.”

He nodded, then pulled his cell
from his pocket. “Levi.”

Rune glanced at him, surprised. She
hadn’t realized Ellis had become close with the twins. But then, Levi
had
comforted him the clinic hall. The twins were good men. Her earlier worries
about their association with COS had floated away before she’d even understood they
were there. Fucking Mitch, putting shit in her head.

“How about you?” Ellis asked, his
voice low. “How are you? And Denim.”

Ellis was a little mother hen. As
soon as he’d hung up with Levi she murmured, “I love you, Ellie.”

His face was not quite so pale. “I
know. I love you too.”

“How are they doing?”

“You know.”

“Yeah.”

When they arrived, Ellis barely
waited for her to stop the car before he was out and running to the door. She
followed him, her heart beating harder and faster with each step. The closer
she got to Lex, the more desperate she felt. It hummed through her veins,
thundered through her bloodstream.

She had to save the girl.

Lex couldn’t die.

Fuck
no.

So she did what she always did when
terrified out of her mind. She got mad.

Denim was pacing the hall in front
of her room. “Come. Hurry.”

She jogged into the room and went
straight to the bed, ignoring everyone but Lex. The blind girl lay like a faded
rose upon her pillow.

As though she sensed Rune beside
her, she opened her eyes. Her black, crazy eyes. When she’d been healthy, her
eyes had been shiny and glasslike, but now they were dull and somehow hot. And
the crazy was gone—her eyes barely moved.

She was a child, a mysterious
Other, a girl who’d known too much pain and too little happiness.

And she was dying.

Rune took her hands, flinching when
a tear slid with tormenting slowness down Lex’s face. “Damn you, Lex. I won’t
let you die.”

“I need to know you’ll take care of
them,” the girl whispered.

“No,” Rune said, her voice harsh.
“No, I won’t. I’ll throw them to the wolves. I’ll kill them myself. I’ll…”

Lex’s lips twitched as she tried to
smile. Even that small movement had to have hurt her. One of the bites on her
face cracked and began to seep a pink, watery fluid. “Shhh, Rune. Everyone has
to die.”

“Not you. Not now.” Behind her
someone sobbed, but she couldn’t stop staring into Lex’s eyes. Couldn’t look
away, because if she did, Lex would slip out of her grasp. She made her live by
sheer will alone.

“Promise…”

Rune shook her head, her throat too
thick to allow words.

“
Promise
her,” one of the
twins yelled. “Tell her what she wants.”

“Hush, Levi,” Lex said in her weak,
tiny voice. “Give me and Rune a moment alone.”

They wouldn’t go against her wishes
for anything, and in seconds, Rune heard the door swish shut behind them.

“I’m going to die, Rune. You can’t
save everyone.” Again, Lex smiled, her wounds protesting the movement.

Rune’s heart was going to explode. The
pain was too much. Moaning, she lifted her hands and raked her nails down her
face.

“You find the silence through
violence and sex, Rune. Know how I get the silence?”

“God,” she screamed.
“God.”

“Rune.”

She forced herself to look down at
Lex, forced herself to say the words that she feared would release the girl.
“I’ll take care of them. Forever.”

Her blood ran like teardrops from
her deep scratches, and fell upon Lex’s ravaged face.

“Oh,” Lex whispered. “That feels
like ice. Rune, what did you do?”

Her blood.
Her blood…

As she watched, her blood puddled
in one of the craters of Lex’s face, then was forced out to slip down her face
as the wound closed.

As the wound healed.

Rune gasped.

Ellis leaned around her, staring
down at Lex. “Rune, your precious, magical blood. She couldn’t take the human
blood, couldn’t take the Other blood…but your blood…”

He was right.

“Guard the door,” she whispered.

He didn’t question her, just ran
for the door.

“Rune?”

“Hang on, baby. I might not be able
to save everyone, but I can save you.”

She pulled a shiv and without
hesitation, sliced open her wrist. Fuck trickles of blood falling into wounds.
Lex needed a truckload.

“Lex, you said you trusted me.”

“Yes.”

“Open your mouth.”

“What—”

As soon as her lips parted Rune
pressed her wrist, slippery with blood, against the girl’s mouth.

Lex was an Other, but a type of
Other no one seemed to understand. Just like Rune. She didn’t fight the blood
but let Rune feed her without a whimper of distaste. And after a few seconds,
Lex reached up to hold Rune’s arm steady and sucked with hunger and returning
strength.

But for Rune each draw of blood from
her wrist was agony.

Can’t anything ever just be
easy?

She ground her teeth, then called
for help.
“Ellie…”

She heard his quick footsteps but
was finding it difficult to see. The room was dimming and swaying…or maybe she
was swaying. Nausea hit her at the same time dizziness struck.

But none of that was anything. That
shit she could have borne. She was saving a life. Lex’s life.

The pain was something more. She
could handle pain. She
needed
pain. Just not this kind of pain.

It grew bigger with each suck of
Lex’s eager mouth. There was nothing she could compare it to. It consumed her,
like a fire burning her from the inside out, burning through her flesh.

If she could have, she would have
taken her wrist from Lex, would have run from the room.

But she couldn’t speak, couldn’t
see, couldn’t move.

She screamed. Inside, she screamed.

She dimly heard Ellis’s voice,
coaxing and firm, but couldn’t comprehend actual words. Finally, before the
pain could either send her into insanity or kill her, Lex released her.

The agonizing pain eased, slipped
away, leaving in its wake some sort of internal devastation Rune could only
imagine. She could feel it, as though she were a forest and had been hacked and
chopped and burned.

Ellie knelt at her side. “Are you
okay? Can you stand?”

She realized she was on the floor.

“Rune,” Lex called. “Rune?”

Shit.
She grabbed on to
Ellis, forcing herself to her feet. “Fuck, Ellie.”

“Baby, you don’t look so good.”

“Yeah? I bet I look better than I
feel.” She leaned against him and nodded at Lex. “But look at
her.
”

Lex was no longer dying. She still
wasn’t completely well, but she was a different person than she’d been just
moments earlier. She was vibrating, and her eyes, like antennae, danced for a
moment then stopped, gathering and absorbing information.

Ellis had dug some gauze and tape
out of a cabinet and bandaged her still-bleeding wrist, his movements fast and
sure, but as soon as he had taken care of her wounds he threw himself at Lex
and lay with his face on her chest, sobbing.