Shiv Crew (14 page)

“There’s a battle at the
graveyard.”

“Wormwood?” asked Levi.

“Yes. I really don’t want to send
you in, so I’m giving you a choice. There are two reasons I’m even considering
putting you in such danger.” He gave Jeremy a long, hard look. “One, because
there was a human spotted in their midst, and she may be one of the girls
kidnapped over the last couple of months. The second reason is the purge.”
Again, he leveled a look at Jeremy, and it was not a friendly look.

Rune frowned.
What the hell is
going on here?

Jeremy simply shrugged and raised
an eyebrow, not flinching from Mitch’s silent accusations.

Raze crossed his arms. “Vampires
are fighting.”

Ah.
Rune understood but
didn’t interrupt or so much as glance at Jeremy as Mitch nodded and continued.

“The reports we received have the
vampires and the wolves brawling. I don’t know what the fight is about, but
neither side needs much of an excuse.” He looked around at them all, one by
one. “Thing is, I don’t want to send my crew into such danger. I’m going to
leave it up to you to think hard about it and decide. A human’s life may be in
danger, true, and that is the only reason I’m allowing you to risk your own
lives. Even though,” he added, “RISC seems to think it would be a good
opportunity to continue the vampire purge.
I
do not agree.”

Rune held up a hand. “Mitch. If
you’re going to be SCRU director, you need to understand—this is what we do. We
save humans.” She finally looked at Jeremy, knowing her stare would be as
unfriendly as Mitch’s had been. “If you wanted to send us in simply because the
vampires are there and you wanted an unsubstantiated purge, I’d refuse.”

Jack took up her explanation. “If
there’s the slightest chance there’s a human caught in the middle of that mess,
we’re going in.”

Raze nodded. “It’s what we do. We
protect the humans.”

Mitch had a worried frown, but deep
in his eyes was a proud gleam. He was like a daddy watching his kids do
something awesome.

And that made Rune frown,
suspicious. Mitch was trying a little too hard to prove his loyalty. Or maybe
she was being paranoid.

Maybe.

“I know. But I don’t like giving orders
that could potentially cause one of you not to come back.” He cleared his
throat, then pointed his chin at Lex. “She is
not
going.”

Rune opened her mouth—not to argue—but
Mitch didn’t know that. He was accustomed to Rune arguing.

“Not a word,” he said to Rune. “You
are not to take that girl.”

Rune inclined her head. “Okay.”

His eyes widened. He pursed his
lips, then frowned. His face was as readable as any book. He continued staring
at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether or not she was being a
smart-ass.

She just smiled.

Lex was not happy. Her body
tensing, she started to argue. “I want to—”

“Lex,” Denim interrupted. “No.” His
voice was soft, but there was a thread of steel running through it.

Lex sighed. She pulled her hand
from Rune’s and crossed her arms, anger in every line of her body. She was a
resilient Other, but then she’d had few choices during her life. She either
bounced back or let the horror take her.

They all looked toward the door
when it opened. Ellis, wearing a tentative smile, walked out.

Rune sighed. Mitch and Jeremy were not
going to go easy on him, probably because Rice was going to chew
their
asses.

As expected, both men turned on
Ellis.

Strad insinuated his mountain of a
body between Ellis and the two men and just looked at them.

They never said a word.

Seriously? The berserker is
protecting
my
people now?

Damn him. What the hell was he
trying to do?

Ellie peeked around Strad’s arm,
trying to look apologetic, but his grin kept popping through.

Lex uncrossed her arms. “Ellis?”

“Yes, love.”

“They’re not going to let you fight
the vampires and wolves either, so can you take me home?”

Ellis patted Strad’s big arm in
thanks and stepped around him to take Lex’s hand. He winked at Rune, smiled at
the rest of them, and began to lead Lex away. “Yes, I can. But first I’m going
to take you to dinner.”

Lex didn’t glance back, but her
voice carried. “Be careful, all of you.”

Jeremy’s cold gaze followed Lex and
Ellis, lingering on the Other.

“Okay, guys,” Rune said a little
too loudly. She didn’t want him looking anywhere near Lex. She stared at him in
silence until he finally looked at her, and then she had to look away. “Let’s
get changed out of these ridiculous clothes, grab some extra weapons, and get
to Wormwood.”

Jeremy was no longer staring after the
retreating bodies of Lex and Ellis, but still, a knot of worry grew inside her
stomach. Lex was on his dark radar.

I’m going to develop a fucking
ulcer.

She walked away with her men,
shaking Jeremy from her mind.

“I’ll have paramedics waiting
outside the gates,” Mitch called after them. “For the human. And just in case…”

He didn’t have to finish. They all
knew what he meant to say.

Shiv Crew stood silent and
watchful, staring up at the gates of Wormwood. From within came the sounds of
battle. The battles of Others were like none other. They brought a certain
level of animal wildness and otherworldliness that no human could understand or
match, no matter how evil he might be.

Finally, Rune spoke. “Ready, guys?”

Raze nodded and hefted his
blades—heavy silver with ornate hilts that would have been too long and heavy
for most men.

“Remember,” she said, knowing she
didn’t have to keep reminding them about her father, but unable to stop.

Once they were inside, the twins pushed
the gates shut behind them.

“Wait,” Levi said. “Look.”

Rune glanced through the bars of
the gates. A man was picking his way quickly but quietly to the fence.

“A fucking reporter?” She hadn’t
even noticed the man following them. “Mitch has created some monsters of his
own.”

The man saw them watching but only
shrugged and lifted the camera hanging around his neck. He was dressed for
winter. His hood and thick coat hid him well.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Rune
called, and without waiting for an answer led her men toward the sounds of
battle. The reporter wasn’t going to get much on camera standing outside the
gates. The battling Others were deep inside the graveyard. But if he came
inside those gates the Others wouldn’t have to get him. She would kick his ass
herself.

Post lights had been placed
sporadically throughout Wormwood, but the place was still too dark. There were
some types of darkness a light couldn’t touch.

Her crew fanned out in an inverted
V, blades in one hand, guns in the other. In seconds, they found the Others.

They didn’t fight in a careful knot
of wolves versus vampires but were spread about Wormwood in a haphazard manner.
Their rules were simple and obvious. The vampires were to kill the wolves, and
the wolves were to kill the vampires.

As she watched, a vampire flew from
a tree and struck a shifter who was fighting another vampire. The ambushed shifter—in
the form of an enormous dog—nonetheless held his own against the two until one
of the vampires struck his chest with stiffened fingers. His hand went into the
furry body like a shiv and came back with a bloody heart. The shifter dropped
and the vampire held the heart to his mouth.

That vampire was her father.

“Already,” she murmured.
“Daddy.”

He heard her, or maybe he felt her.
He dropped the messy organ and ran toward her. He was fast, but nothing near as
fast as an older vampire. And he was hungry.

Z and Jack stepped in front of her
with weapons drawn. “Stop,” Jack commanded, and the vampire obeyed him, his
stare on his daughter.

“I would never hurt my baby,” he
said.

Rune pushed her way between her two
men. “Go,” she said. “Do what we’re here to do. I just need a minute with
my…with him.”

Jack nodded to Z. “Look for the
girl. I’ll hang out here.”

Rune didn’t even try to argue with
him. She was compromised with her raw emotions and her mind on her father and
needed someone at her back. She gave Jack a quick nod, grateful.

She turned back to her father.
“Dad.” She spread her hands, unsure, now that she had him. “Daddy. I’m…I didn’t
know.”
I wish I still didn’t.

The vampire’s face was sunken and
pale, his eyes as dark and hot as cigarette burns in a dirty white rug. “I
needed to talk to you, darling.” His voice was as deep and comforting as she
remembered. “I’d hoped for a long time you’d never see me, but once you did… Come
here, baby. Come here.” He opened his arms.

Jack walked to her father and put
his gun to the vampire’s head. “Hug your father if you want to, Rune.” He
looked at the vampire. “I’m sure you’ll understand the precaution, sir.”

Rune’s father opened his mouth, his
body shaking in a soundless laugh. “Sir. I haven’t been called sir for many
years.” He turned his face toward Jack, despite the gun pressing into his
skull. “You’re right to take care of her. Don’t ever stop.”

Then he opened his arms once more
to Rune. “Give me one last hug, my darling.”

She couldn’t have refused him for
anything. She walked into his arms, her heart crying, even if her eyes could
not. “I’m so sorry.”

He enveloped her with skinny arms
that had the subtle hint of vampire strength. He smelled different, but she
could pretend, for a few seconds, that he was the same. That she was the same.

“It was never your fault, baby
girl. When—”

“Shhh,” she said. Some things he
could not say in front of Jack.

He glanced at the big man. “It was
never your fault.” He put his fingers beneath her chin and forced her to look
at him. “I swear that to you.”

“My mother…”

“You did her a favor, child. Did
you know we can’t kill ourselves, even if we don’t want to…live?” His smile
hurt her. “Being immortal is living in unimaginable pain and knowing you will
never, ever find peace.”

Her heart broke, broke in ways she
no longer thought it capable of breaking. She’d done that to him.

Jack, his gaze constantly darting,
murmured, “We need to hurry, Rune.”

As though fearing she’d take off
before he was finished, the vampire grabbed her upper arms and held tight. “Child.
End me.”

She tried to jerk out of his grip.
“God, Daddy. No.”

“Do it. I want to find peace. I
want to join your mother. Rune, please.”

She glanced around. The sounds of
the battle greeted her, and she realized just how deeply she’d been
concentrating on her father. Had he tried to mesmerize her? It wouldn’t matter.
She’d been tested by vampires before. Their gazes had no effect on her. “I
can’t,” she whispered. “Don’t ask me. Please,
please
.”

Another nail in her coffin of
guilt.

“Rune—”

Jack snarled. “Leave her be.”

Her father smiled. “Try to remember
Rune, always, that I love you.” Before she could reply, or think, or move, he
dropped his fangs and went for her throat.

Jack blew his head off.

She screamed, scooping bits of her
father off her face and slinging them onto the ground, fighting the dizziness trying
to overwhelm her. “
God
, Jack…”

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry.” Jack looked
lost, his eyes clouded with sorrow for her. “I’m so sorry.”

“God,”
she repeated. “My
dad…”

Jack fell to his knees, blade at
the vampire’s chest. “I’ll stake him so he can rest the way he wanted, then
I’ll take you home.”

No.
She was stronger than
that.

She pulled her blade and knelt on
the other side of her father. A blade of silver would do the work of a wooden
stake, as long as it was left in his heart until he became dust. There was
nothing left of his head to take. “I’ll do it. It’s my job to do.”

With Jack standing guard, keeping
the vampires and wolves at bay, she gave her father his peace.

She could only wish to be so lucky.

“Can I take you home?”

She stood, staring down at a body
that wouldn’t be there when she passed that way again. “No. There is work to
do.”

She felt as though a lifetime had
passed in the last few minutes.

She wasn’t about to antagonize a
graveyard full of vampires, no matter what Jeremy wanted. She would find the
human captive and get the hell out. The Others could continue destroying each
other in peace.

Still, Shiv Crew being inside Wormwood
put a damper on the fighting. She could feel the Others there, watching,
waiting. She motioned for Jack to give her a boost onto a rather tall, lumpy
rock.

“We only want the human,” Rune yelled.
The Others would hear her. “Give the human over, and we’ll leave you to it. Get
in our way, and we’ll butcher every fucking one of you.”

Nothing.

She jumped down from the rock.
“Shit. Stubborn fuckers. We’ll have to flush them out.”

But Jack put a hand on her arm.
“Hold on.”

She looked in the direction of his
stare and watched as a dark figure detached itself from the deeper shadows and
began walking toward them. It wasn’t alone but seemed to be forcing another
figure along with it.

When the two were about twenty feet
away Rune knew exactly who both people were. Llodra, master of the River County
vampires, and Amy, little bite junkie.

She squeezed Jack’s arm. “This
could go badly.”

The twins slid from the shadows,
blades ready, to stand beside Rune. On the other side of Jack, Raze appeared,
so abruptly it was as though he’d always been there but she simply hadn’t seen
him.

Amy began talking to Llodra,
softly, then gave a recognizable cry of pain. “Nick!”

“Be silent,” he said, and continued
dragging her toward the crew.

“Where’s Z?” Rune whispered.

No one spoke, but Raze shrugged. Z
was unaccounted for, and that made her nervous. It was not smart to wander Wormwood
alone, not if you were human. Not even Shiv Crew human.

Z can take care of himself.

Right now she had the vampire
master to worry about. “Hello, Llodra.”

The master’s face was empty, his
eyes dark. He’d been around twenty-five when turned, and his young face didn’t
quite match his status. Or his old eyes.

“Ms. Alexander,” he said, blankly
polite. “Here is the human you seek. I imagine you will keep your word and
leave us to ourselves.”

His voice was as smooth as silk
with just the slightest French accent. Maybe it was affected, maybe not. She’d
heard he was three hundred years old, but wasn’t going to ask him.

She glanced at Amy. The girl stood
with her head down, as dirty as ever, and as yet un-turned. “Amy. Look at me,
baby.”

The girl stared at the ground until
Llodra squeezed her arm, then raised a tearstained, resentful face to Rune.

Rune frowned at Llodra. He reminded
her of Jeremy, the way he used pain to get what he wanted.

“Are you okay?”

“I was,” Amy said. “But if you make
me go back, I swear I’ll kill myself.”

“I’ve been ordered to bring you
out. I have to do that.” She gestured at her men. “It’s why we’re here.”

Nicolas Llodra raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? It is not to kill more vampires?” He lifted his face and sniffed the air,
his gaze slightly more interested when he looked at her again. “The
multilayered Ms. Alexander. What
are
you, exactly?”

Fucking Others and their freaky
noses. She pretended not to notice her men looking at her—wondering at the
master’s strange words—and got back to business. “I need to talk to you about
the ordered purge. I don’t believe you’re abducting and killing human girls. I
just need a way to prove that to—”

His laugh interrupted her. It was
not an amused laugh, just a way of getting his scornful point across. “There is
no saving the Spiritgrove vampires. It’s too late for us. It is right for you
to take this little fool.” He shook Amy’s arm. “I do not need her to die by my
side.”

“I can’t accept that it’s too late
for you,” Rune said. “You’re being set up. Lie low and let me get this shit cleared
up.”

He stared at her for a long moment.
“I never saw you as naive, Ms. Alexander.”

“Not naive. Determined and
stubborn, maybe. I don’t like when things are unfair.”

He looked tired. Suddenly he shoved
Amy toward Rune. “Take the girl.”

Amy fell to the ground at Rune’s
feet, sobbing.

Rune stared at him. “We are the
ones sent to do the purges. Think about it.”

“They will simply send someone else
eventually if you refuse to do your job.”

“The man who started this. The one
taking money from the groups. I need to know who he is.”

For the first time, she saw a spark
of emotion in his eyes. Surprise. “How…” He narrowed his eyes and looked at
Amy.

Shit.

“I hear things, and not from the
vampires. From the wolves.” Yeah, she was throwing the wolves under the bus,
but the vampires hated them already. Her words wouldn’t make a difference.

He hesitated, then inclined his
head toward Amy. “She knows what I know.” He shrugged. “Ask her. What
difference will it make now?”

“You need to help me, Llodra. Is
this guy involved with COS? Can you describe him to me? ”
Fuck.
Amy had
already spilled her guts. It wasn’t likely she had anything new to say.

“I have not seen him,” the vampire
surprised her by admitting. “Only his collector.”

“Who is the collector?”

He shrugged. “A wolf. But that
information would not help you. Now you must excuse me. I have some trespassers
to subdue.”

It finally dawned on her. The
vampires weren’t fighting the Spiritgrove wolves—they were fighting the Dark
Others.

“Llodra!”

He turned back to her, his voice
impatient. “Yes?”

“You’re fighting the Dark Others
tonight. Why?”

“Interesting name for a traitorous
bunch of fugitive shifters, Ms. Alexander. Your idea?”

“No. Answer my question.”

“They wish to kill us. When I find
my peace it will not be at the hands of these traitorous thugs.”

She frowned. “Why would they want
to kill the vampires?”

He smiled, his dark eyes hiding too
many secrets. “Perhaps they believe it will gain them acceptance, doing your
job.”

She motioned to Raze who leaned
over to pull Amy to her feet. “Don’t let a Dark Other kill you tonight, Llodra.”

He turned to walk away, then faced
her once more. “The vampire you killed tonight.”

“He was my father,” she said, her
voice flat. “Not your business.”

“If times were different I would
argue that fact. But as things stand, you did him a favor.”

Yeah I’ve been doing a lot of
fucking favors.
She stared at him. “Anything else you want to tell me?”