Strange Trouble (8 page)

“Hurry,” Owen panted. He gently laid Z—or something that
resembled Z—on the ground. “I don’t know if even you can save him now, Rune,
but if you can…”

She met his shuttered gaze. “Thank you. I won’t forget
this.”

“I couldn’t let him die. Not if there was a chance you could
save him.” He gave a tight smile. “I tried.”

He glanced behind her and she turned to watch Jack as he
walked up to stand beside her. “Are we going to fight?” she asked.

“No, Rune.”

“I have to try.”

“I know.”

But she wasn’t sure she even could try. She’d fed Levi,
she’d lost half her hand, and now she was running on fumes. She wasn’t sure she
had the blood to save Z. But she was sure as hell going to give it a shot.

Z lay unmoving on the cold pavement, his skin greenish and
covered with sores. His hair was gone, all but a few stubborn strands. He
smelled like infection and death.

“What can I do to help?” Jack asked, kneeling beside her.

“I might pass out. I might try to run.” Yeah, the pain was
that bad. “I need you to hold my wrist to his mouth.” Then she transferred her
stare to Owen. “And if he can’t keep me there, I need you to.”

He nodded. “You got it.”

She dropped her fangs and lifted her wrist to her mouth,
slicing open a vein. She began to bleed at once.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed her wrist against Z’s lips.
“Drink, Z,” she ordered.
“Drink.”

Of course he couldn’t hear her, but the blood ran into his
mouth anyway, just as it had with Levi.

But there was no pain.

Terror squeezed her lungs and she couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t
working. She needed to feed in order to heal him. It wasn’t going to work.

“God,” she cried. “I have nothing left to give him.” And
weeping, she took her wrist away. He’d taken some of her blood, but it was as
though she’d given him a drink of water.

She couldn’t feel it working.

There was no fucking pain.

“Get Lex,” she said. “I’ll feed and—”

“He’s too far gone,” Jack said, gently.

And she knew he was right.

She stretched out beside Z, wrapping her good arm around him
and burying her face against his chest. She didn’t care that his shirt had been
splashed with vomit and blood, didn’t care that the stench of him was enough to
make a person sick.

“You know Z loves you.”
Lex’s voice echoed in her
mind.

Yes, she knew.

He was her Z, and she couldn’t save him.

“Don’t call me sweet thing,” she whispered.

Her cell began to ring, and one of the guys, Jack, most
likely, pulled it from her pocket.

“Yeah?”
Jack was quiet for a
minute. “Owen brought Z in. She fed him. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

She forced herself away from Z, flinching as her half-eaten
hand hit the pavement. Out of habit she lifted her right hand to push her hair
out of her face,
then
remembered her hair was gone.
“Tell me,” she said to Jack.

“That was Strad. They’re surrounded by zombies and could use
some help.”

She nodded. “We’ll have to…” She gestured at Z, unable to
finish the sentence.

Jack stood and drew a long blade. “I’ll do it.”

She wanted to be strong. She wanted to do the right thing,
to take the blade from Jack and say
no, no. It’s my responsibility and I
will do it.

“Okay,” she said.

“Wait.” Owen held up a finger, his voice sharp.

Desperate for anything, any small hope, Rune looked at Owen.
“What?”

Owen pointed at Z’s face. “He looks better. You might not
have healed him, Rune, but you might have. I’m going to put him in the house
across the street.” He met her hopeful gaze. “We can’t take a chance on killing
him if he’s going to heal.”

“I’m not going to let him become a fucking zombie,” Jack
said, and lifted his blade.

“Jack. No.” She gave Owen a nod. “Take him in and leave him.
Be quick.”

When things went wrong, they went wrong in a hurry.

Jack didn’t say a word.

He might live,
was all Rune could think.
He might.
He
could.

They waited impatiently until Owen completed his task and
climbed into the back with Lex and the children. “What’s this?”

Lex began explaining. Rune stared out the window as Jack
sped them away from the site, from Z.

The daylight faded into a cold darkness. It’d been winter forever.
Cold, weak sunlight, gray days, frigid nights.
Summer
was a distant memory and every single part of her longed for it.

Jack’s stomach growled and it took her half a minute to
figure out what she’d heard. She rummaged in the glove compartment until she
found what she was looking for. “Eat this.”

He smiled. “Gunnar’s Baby Ruth?”

She nodded but couldn’t bring herself to smile. “I remember
a time when I was a hard ass, Jack.”

“You’re still a hard ass, honey, but you love your crew.”

“Yeah,” she said, almost afraid to say more. Even she could
hear the tears in her voice. “But so do you and you didn’t fall apart.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You call that falling apart? When
this is over, Rune, I’ll grieve for the ones we lose. I’ll grieve hard.” He
reached over to pat her leg,
then
took the candy. “If
any one of us had to deal with half the shit you’ve dealt with, we’d be insane.
Or dead.
So yeah.”
He ripped
the packaging off the candy and took a gigantic bite. “You’re a hard ass.”

“I’d like a burger,” Lex said.

“As soon as we get a chance, we’ll raid a grocery,” Rune
promised.

“Want a bite?” Jack asked, waving the candy over his
shoulder.

“No, thanks,” Lex answered.

Owen grabbed the candy and finished it off. “Got any more of
those?”

“Sorry, baby.” Rune stared out the window once more. Her
hand was feeling a little better but she left the bandages on. Her claws would
rip right through the gauze when she needed them. It might hurt to use them,
but to fight the zombies she’d need all the claws she had left.

Z. Get up.

“Did Strad say anything about Denim?” she asked Jack.

“No.”

Even if Denim noticed that Levi was a little different, he’d
be overjoyed his brother lived.
Surely.

But there was no more time to worry about it.

“We have to put the kids into a secure house while we’re
fighting,” she told Jack. “Let’s try one of those.”

He pulled into the yard and right up to the front door of a
small white house, then jumped out of the car and went to break in and make
sure it was clear.

But when he came back, his face was pale and he drove them
away from the little house as though monsters were hanging from the ceiling.
“I’ll find another one.
Can’t go in there.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll find another.” And that was all he’d say.

He didn’t have to explain. She had a good idea of what he’d
found inside the house.

He found another one and went to clear it.

“I know this house,” George said. “My mom’s friend lives
here.”

But Fie wouldn’t get out of the car. She hung on to the back
of Rune’s seat and screamed.

“Fie, come on,” George said. “They’re going to fight
zombies. They might get in the car.” And finally, he was able to pull Fie from
the SUV.

They left the children there with promises to return as soon
as they could.

“There they are,” Jack said, five minutes later.

Up ahead, tall pole lights shone down on what looked like a
hundred zombies. They blocked the street, an undulating mass of rotting flesh
and eerie moans. They spilled into yards and lurched into trees, trampling each
other in their desperate attempts to find living food.

In the middle of that mess were her men.

Tremors of excitement unfurled inside her belly as she
jumped from the truck. If there was anything that would take her mind off Z and
Levi and Denim and fucking
hell,
it was killing the enemy.

They cut their way through the zombies, desperation riding
them as they tried to reach Raze, Levi, and Strad.

Despite her attempts to shut off her thoughts, worry that
another of the crew would be infected stayed on her mind.

What if Strad got bitten? He’d decapitate himself before she
had a chance to heal him.

Her injured hand screamed with hot agony and the recent,
barely healing wound broke open and began to bleed. Not only could she not
afford to lose more blood, but the scent of it was sending the zombies into
a frenzy
.

Their moans and eerie vocalizations were haunting and
horrifying. Even as she rid them of their heads she shuddered with a strange
empathy and something close to reluctance.

It was like they were all trapped in an ancient insane
asylum.

It was like the zombies were her
children.

She fought harder.

Dark splashes of blood flew through the air to land in
unseen splats, converging with shadows neither the streetlights nor the moon
could illuminate.

But the blood was less than it had been when the crew had
first fought the zombies. The zombies hadn’t eaten for a while—a little fact
they hoped to rectify as they went for Rune and her people.

Still, there was blood—and she needed it. She opened her
mouth for it, drank it down, and sighed with delight at the potent mix of magic
and life.

And because she drank, her monster woke up.

Suddenly she was Rune the Invincible again.

And that made her ecstatic.

Nothing could touch her. She flung herself into the crowd of
zombies with screaming glee, slashing her way to the center.
To
her men.

She saw Strad thrust his spear into a zombie’s head. He
turned to get the one behind him and spotted her.

She winked at him, acknowledging the beauty of his white
smile,
then
she annihilated three zombies in as many
seconds.

She was fast, faster even than she’d been before. She didn’t
question it. She was somehow better, and she used that speed to thin the
zombies.

Her hand was healed.

She hadn’t noticed when all five claws regenerated, but
there they were, as strong as ever.
Stronger.

She threw her head back and screamed, daring fate, maybe, to
take her crew.
You won’t get them. You won’t get any of them.

And in that second, once again, something changed inside
her.
Something big.

“Z,” she cried. She sliced neatly through the neck of a
female zombie who possessed some of the longest teeth she’d ever seen, then
yelled his name again as she whirled around and took out two males.
“Z!”

She could feel him coming toward her, running like a dark,
unstoppable force, and she didn’t care that he might be a zombie, might be her
slave, might be
pissed.

She just didn’t give a fuck.

He slung zombies out of his way as he came for her, came
to
her, his perfect green eyes bright with life and hate and knowledge.

He might have hurt her then, if he’d been anyone but Z.

But Z did not hurt women. And he especially did not hurt
Rune.

His maker, his mistress.

She grinned, could feel it stretching across her face like a
hideous mask. “Welcome back, baby.”

He fought with his crew, his cuts as neat and quick and
amazing as they’d ever been.

Z.

As though drawn to him, Levi muscled his way through the
remaining zombies until he reached Z, and shot out a hand to clap him on the
shoulder.

She would swear later she saw a spark fly from his touch.
Later, when she had time to recall the events of that
moment,
that
fight.

She’d brought them both back. They were hers now, hers in
ways the others were not.

Was she a god?

Fuck no.

She was a
goddess
.

And as she threw herself back into the battle, she thought
she heard the mad master Llodra’s laughter, chilling her to her very bones.

She couldn’t stay high forever, and when she came down, she
came down hard.

The area was ominously quiet once the crowd of zombies had
been destroyed. The crew regrouped silently, waiting for Rune to tell them what
to do.

Z stood off to himself, his back turned, and no one
approached him except Levi. Z had glowered at Levi, told him to get the fuck
away from him, and hadn’t said a word since.

The crew would give him his space.

For a while.

“Should we get some food then do a search and destroy?” Jack
asked.

“No,” she decided. “We try to get the kids out of town.”

They’d been lucky so far. No one had died. She glanced at Z
and amended that thought. No one had
stayed
dead.

“We can’t leave until we find Denim,” Levi said.

Rune nodded. Levi seemed more like his old self. He’d hugged
Lex and kissed her forehead, smiling when she’d grabbed him to her and wrapped
her arms around him. But even though she’d refused to let him go for ten
minutes, her anger was palpable. The twins, her guardians, the two people in
the world she could count on, had left her.

Every so often Levi would peer at Rune and frown, but he didn’t
ask any questions. He’d squeezed her shoulder once and said, “Thanks for saving
my life.”

And that was all.

In the end they split up—Strad drove Raze to get his truck
where Owen had abandoned it, and Rune took the others with her to look for
Denim. Raze was going to pick up Fie and George as well. If they couldn’t find
Denim soon, one of the men would have to take the kids to River County.

She was worried about Denim, but she didn’t share her
uneasiness with Lex and Levi. They were worried enough all on their own.

Her cell rang and even before she saw RISC on the display
she knew it was bad news. “Elizabeth?”

“They know, Rune. The military is being sent in. You have to
get out now. If they find you there—”

“I understand. But first we have to find Denim.”

“There is no time. Don’t take a chance with the crew. Get
them out of there.”

“As soon as we can.”
She hung up.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“Elizabeth ordered us out. The military is coming.”

“Not without Denim,” Levi said.

“Fuck.” She hit the steering wheel.
Where are you, Denim?

She tossed her cell to Jack. “Let Strad and Raze know.”

Denim was probably already dead. One man alone in a town of
zombies, especially zombie
Others
, was not going to
survive long.

She listened to Jack talking to Strad and wished for one
weak moment she was back in River County.
Back in her bed
with the berserker.

“Rune,” Lex said, leaning up from the backseat. “There’s
something here. Stop the car.”

Rune stopped immediately. No one made a sound as they
listened, searching the night outside the windows for whatever it was Lex had
sensed.

And then Rune saw a movement from the corner of her eye.
“Vampires.”
She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a
very bad thing. Her fangs dropped in response. “I’ll talk to them.”

She climbed out, eager. Eager for what, she couldn’t have
said. Fighting? Being close to those who were almost her own kind?

But then a vision of Llodra swam into her mind.

Get out of my head, Nick.

She held a gun in one hand and a silver blade in the other.

She felt her crew at her back and her stomach tossed with
anxiety. She’d become terrified of losing them, and she was going to have to
get over it. It was a dangerous job. She had to stop thinking like an
overprotective mother.

But she didn’t know how many vampires were lurking or what
they had on their dark minds. She could handle whatever they dished out. Her
crew might not be able to.

“Do you think they’re infected?” Jack asked.

“The wolves and shifters were,” she said.
“But
the vampires?
I doubt it.”

But
she
had been infected—she’d just managed to fight
it off. If she could get infected, so could the other bloodsuckers.

It was the most fucked up zombie infection she’d ever heard
of.

“We have no time,” Lex whispered.

Rune nodded and stood still, staring into a blackness barely
illuminated by the moon, the streetlights, or her headlights. “I need to talk
to you,” she called. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

Laughter floated from the shadows. “I’ll try to control my
terror.”

It was a soft, feminine voice, musical and full of sunshine.

“Who are you?” Rune asked, and held her gun a little
tighter. There was something about that voice. It was too…sweet. That made her
cautious.

Then the woman materialized. It was as though she’d been
there all along but Rune hadn’t been able to see her until the woman—the
vampire—had allowed it.

Rune brought her gun up. The lady vampire was the most
beautiful woman Rune had ever seen.
And judging from the
indrawn breaths at her back, the crew agreed.

The vampire looked at Rune’s gun. “Please. If you lower your
weapon, I will love you forever.” She smiled, and her eyes smiled with her. “It
makes me nervous.”

“I’ll keep it where it is. I’ll only use it if you or your
people come too close.” Rune smiled back at the lady, pretty sure
her
eyes
did not smile with her. “I promise.”

“I completely understand,” the vampire said, nodding. Silky
black hair slid over her shoulders to her waist. “My name is Marta, and I am
the vampire mistress of Rock County.”

“I’m—”

“Rune Alexander of River County’s Shiv Crew.” She kept her
smile. “You are very well known.
Unlike my poor worthless
self.”
She motioned at something behind her. “My people and I prefer to
remain as inconspicuous as possible.”

It was as though they were having tea and cookies. “Marta,
we need to get out of this city. The military is coming in and they won’t leave
one fucking thing standing—including us if we’re caught here. I suggest you and
your children take off.”

Marta widened her eyes.
“How awful.
We will leave soon, of course.”

“Answer some quick questions first.”

“Happily.”

“How is it the
Others
are infected?
Can the vampires be infected? And where are the rest of the
Others
?
I’ve seen only a few, and they were all zombies.”

Finally, a spark of something other than amiability flashed
through the vampire’s eyes.
“Dead, zombies, and in the Camp.”

Rune shivered. “Tell me.”

“We were overrun by corrupt, greedy, sadistic men. They
loaded the
Others
into the Camp for the slightest
infringements—most of the charges were fabricated by law enforcement. To keep
free
Others
in line, their loved ones were hurt.” The
vampire held a hand to her chest. “Darkness has covered Rock County like a
blanket, and no one knew. No one cared.”

“What’d they do in the Camp?”

She pursed her lips,
then
shrugged.
“Among other things, they fight the
Others
for money.”

“Fuck.” It was a big money maker, fighting
Others
. Like cockfights and dogfights, Otherfights were
illegal but that didn’t stop them from happening.

“The Camp is not a pleasant place.”

“I don’t understand. Vampires are powerful. Why didn’t you—”

“My responsibility is to my coven. The
Others
would have rebelled eventually and all hell, as they say, would have broken
loose. But then, someone worse came, and the zombies came, and Rock County has
already become a ghost town.” Marta motioned to something behind her.
“Beside me, children.”

Rune watched, breath held, as small black cats began
slinking from the shadows, curling themselves around Marta’s legs, trying to
get as close to her as possible.

“Cats?”
Rune asked. “Your children
are
cats?
”

“What the fuck?” Jack muttered.

“They are now.
Most of them.
There
is a being. A witch, if you will,” Marta said. “She goes by the name Damascus.
She’s…unimaginable.” She
paused,
her eyes shining like
pieces of glitter had been caught inside the black orbs. “She did this to my
vampires. We need you to send her away.”

“Me?”

“The witch has to die or be sent back to her world. No one
else we know has a chance against her—but then, no one else we know is brave
enough to try.”

Rune raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with the flattery.

Marta continued when Rune remained silent. “The vampires,
the
Others
, the humans…we are powerless against her.
But you are more than vampire. You are more than anything I’ve ever seen,
second to Damascus.” She stepped closer, despite the gun Rune continued to
point at her heart. “You must save us.”

“There is no time,” Levi said. “They are coming to level the
place.”

“Let
them
destroy the witch,” Jack said. “We can’t.”

“No,” Marta said. “Guns or blades or bombs cannot destroy
Damascus. Her parts will knit back together and she will be better than ever.
This is what she does. She is not exactly…physical. It will take a special kind
of magic to stand against the witch.
To defeat her.”
She looked once more at Rune. “You have that power inside you. Nicolas Llodra
assured me of this.”

Rune’s legs weakened and she forced herself not to tremble.
“How do you know Llodra?”

Marta smiled gently, almost pityingly. “We are vampires,
Rune. We know each other.”

“What does he have to do with all of this?”

“Nicolas knows the witch and knows her well. He knows her
weaknesses and her strengths.”

“How?”

Marta leaned over to stroke one of her cats. “She is his
maker.”

Rune couldn’t breathe.

She frowned as a memory, just out of reach, swam through her
mind. “He’s mad.
And probably already dead.
My
people—”

“Nicolas lives,” Marta interrupted. “But not for long. He is
being starved and tortured. Your people are not much different from the Rock
County humans. They are slowly killing him, and you must not let that happen.”

And suddenly she remembered.
Remembered
Llodra in her head, telling her to save him.

“Nicolas
is
a bit mad,” Marta continued. “He has made
mistakes. But he is not
an…
evil
vampire,
really. He needs help.”

“I don’t get it.”

“The witch Damascus terrifies him. Nicolas escaped her. He
had another witch surround him with a…scrambling spell, if you will, in the
very distant past. Damascus could not find him until a few days ago. She was
off by a few miles and landed here thanks to...” She shook her head
impatiently. “That doesn’t matter. But she didn’t believe he wasn’t here hiding
or that we weren’t hiding him.” She gestured at the cats. “Her excuse for
tormenting our
Others
.”

“She created the zombies,” Jack guessed.

“It’s a complicated story,” Marta said.

“Then condense it for us,” Rune suggested. “Please.”

“The child Stefanie brought forth the first zombies,” Marta
said, “before Damascus even arrived. Stefanie’s mother had died. The children
were devastated.

“The authorities discovered her…
gift
and were going
to sell her to the highest bidder. But then Damascus came.” She shrugged.
“Stefanie was partly responsible for the witch arriving here.
Princess of the dead calling to the queen of the dead, perhaps.
If not for the child, I’m sure the witch would have appeared closer to
your
town.”

“Because she finally tracked Llodra.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about the zombies.”

“Damascus is controlling the newly infected dead. She is animating
them with her filthy magic. That is why the
Others
are
being infected—because of her. If you send her back to her world, those
animated with her magic will end.”

“How do you know so much about the witch?” Jack asked,
mistrust evident in his voice.

“I know because we are connected. Damascus is Nicolas
Llodra’s maker. And
he
is mine.”

 She gazed steadily at Rune, her eyes glittering in the
darkness. “If you send the witch away, the new zombies will be destroyed. If
you don’t, they will infest the world. You will have a zombie apocalypse.”

“What about the regular zombies?”

Marta’s smile was wide and a little superior. “You and the
humans will manage to put them down. They are easier to deal with, are they
not?” Then she dropped her smile. “But I care little for that. The witch wants
Nicolas. And she will find him. If she reaches him, everyone in your RISC
building will die, and she will take the master.” For the first time, Marta’s
voice broke and the jolly façade began to crack.

“How can I kill her?”

Marta shook her head. “I do not have much faith in your
ability to kill her, but I do believe you can send her back. If you make her
fear you, she will go. You have to try. But first, you have to make your people
release my maker.”

“I don’t have to do anything,” Rune said.

Her cell rang, the sudden sound causing her to jerk. She
holstered her gun and pulled the cell from her pocket. “Raze?”

“Rune, Fie is gone.”

“What?”

“I found George unconscious on the floor. When I got him to
wake up…” His swallow was loud. “His eyes are empty. He’s awake but can’t talk.
Doesn’t even acknowledge me.
He’s not a zombie.
Just…it’s like something terrible happened and he withdrew into himself. Like
that.”