Shiv Crew (25 page)

Two nights later she hung up with
Rice, smiling. Things were changing, and everyone had a part in those changes.
Rice was still police director, and she was still captain of Shiv Crew, but
SCRU had been merged with RISC. Now there was only the Regional Investigations
of Supernatural Crime, of which her crew was a huge part.

RISC was getting a new boss, but
after the Dark Others’ defeat at Hawthorne Ridge, she would gain a hell of a
lot more freedom and authority. Rice had promised her that.

And with two Others in law
enforcement in River County…

Yes, things were changing.

Ellis was thrilled she’d decided to
go to the clinic. It could only help her, even though the battle at Hawthorne
had gone a long way in changing how she saw herself.

She’d forgiven little Rune, the
child who’d only done what was her nature to do.

Even if she wasn’t sure what her
nature was. She might have begun to forgive and accept, but just what the fuck
was she? Where had she come from? No one seemed to know. And if they did, they
weren’t talking.

Jeremy had disappeared.

She paced around her ugly house,
anxiety coating her stomach like old milk.

It was two in the morning, not too
late to find some trouble in the city. Restless, she punched in Ellis’s number,
ready to apologize if she woke him.

He answered on the second ring.
“You okay, Rune?”

“Yeah. You weren’t sleeping. What’s
up?”

He paused. “You know.”

“Oh.” He was on a date. “Just be
careful. I have a bad feeling tonight.”

“Want me to come over?”

“No, baby. Enjoy your night.”

She hung up and immediately called
Z. The call went to voicemail. Shit, what could she say? “Um. Just checking
in.”
Lame, Rune.

Fuck it. The whole business with
Jeremy missing and her imminent departure to the land of the shrinks had messed
her up.

She stared out one of the tall
living room windows. It was too quiet. The streetlights lent a gloomy, eerie
glow to the silent street. The sidewalks were covered with the pale gleam of a
light snow, scattered by the icy fingers of wind.

When she came back from the clinic,
she was getting a dog. She didn’t enjoy her solitude the way she once had.

The way she had before the battle.
There’d always been her monster keeping her company. Now her monster was
just…her.

And she was alone.

 She stared at her cell, her finger
poised to punch in the one number she wanted to call. The one number she
shouldn’t call.

Strad Matheson, the berserker.

“Fuck,” she whispered. She couldn’t
call him. Her life was already too complicated. Reaching out to the berserker?
No. Just no.

She hit the number almost before
she realized she was going to do it.

“You okay, Rune?”

She closed her eyes at his voice,
so deep and dark. It slid into her ear, into her brain, like wicked chocolate.
Chocolate she should not eat.

“I…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing is wrong.”

She could almost see his
hesitation. “Rune…”

“I shouldn’t have called.” She
clicked off, furious with herself. What the fuck had she been thinking?

The cell rang as she held it, and
she jumped at the sudden sound. She let it ring.

“Leave me alone, Strad,” she
whispered.

It stopped ringing as it went to
voicemail, and then there was only the heavy quiet. Once upon a time, she’d
wanted the silence. Just maybe not
this
silence.

She put the cell on the windowsill
and continued staring out into the darkness. It was snowing again, harder,
isolating her even more.

Fuck it. She’d grab some shivs and
her coat and go to RISC. Her job was good for working off anxiety and excess
energy.

She turned away from the window,
and ran straight into Jeremy Cross.

In the millisecond before he shot
her she dropped her fangs and reached for him, but it was too late.

The silver bullet entered her
abdomen and exploded, sending melting silver into her bloodstream.

“Well, fuck,” she said.

He held her up when she would have
fallen, cradling her against his chest. He dragged her to the couch and sat
with her across his lap. “I saw you feed, my little monster. I saw you feed
from the man who used to be under my command.”

She opened her mouth but nothing
came out—it was impossible to breathe. There was nothing but pain. Agony.

He smoothed a strand of hair out of
her eyes. “I’m glad, though. You
should
feed. Because in the end, it
doesn’t matter, does it?”

Oh God, it hurts.

Fight it,
fight
it.

“I could have disappeared forever,
but I couldn’t seem to leave you. Not here, alive.” He frowned, angry, a little
confused. “Why is that, Rune?”

The silver traveled throughout her
body, destroying her. Not even when she’d fed Lex had the pain been so bad. And
she hadn’t thought it could be worse than that.

But it could be.

So much worse.

“You’re going to die,” he said, his
voice low, calm. “The question is, how much pain can you take before you go?”
He licked her face, his tongue leaving damp evil like a second skin. “I bet you
can take a whole fucking lot more now that you’re so full of human blood. Nasty,
beautiful fucking bitch.”

She gasped for air that would not
come. Her body was stiffening, going cold.
I should’ve talked to you,
Berserker. I should have talked to you.

“Why couldn’t I leave you?” He
shook her a little, wearing an angry, almost embarrassed half smile. “Why
couldn’t I
leave
you?”

Blood ran from the wound in her
stomach, leaving silver in her veins. She could barely coax her arm to move but
forced herself to lift her hand to his throat.

Too incapacitated to do anything
once she got it there, she could only rest her fingertips against his warm skin.
Like a lover’s touch.

He lifted her and carried her to
her bed, laying her gently across it. “I missed us. I missed what we do. You
were good for me, Rune.”

Standing back, he stared at her,
his eyes almost…normal. Sad. “After this night, you will no longer exist.
Then
I can leave you.”

She must have been breathing,
though she could not taste the air. But she remained aware, and slowly, so
slowly, the shock of the silver fled, leaving devastation in its wake.

Unbearable pain, weakness, and
terror.

But she could move, at least a
little.

“Jeremy,” she whispered, when she
could talk again. “I will end you.”

His eyes widened. “Whatever you
are, you’re a strong one. I admire that in a woman.”

He pulled a shiv from her dresser,
holding it to his lips for a brief moment. Like Gunnar with his Baby Ruth.

The shiv cut into his lip and a
drop of blood beaded and slid down his chin.

He leaned over and kissed her.

And as his lips moved tenderly
against hers, he sliced her face with the blade. “I love you, Rune.” He
straightened, breathing hard, his face flushed.

In a lightning quick slash he dragged
the knife across her chest, resting the point at her throat. “See how much I
love you?”

Use the pain. It’s what I do.

She forced her terror away, forced
herself calm.

It’s what I do.

She closed her eyes and
concentrated on that agony. She took it apart, then began to put it back together
into a pain she could endure.

She took the fear and wrapped it in
rage, rage she’d been born with.

Then she looked at him.

“Hello, monster,” he said. “It’s
been too long.”

She smiled.

“Fuck you,” Jeremy murmured.

“No, baby. Fuck
you
.”

She grabbed his throat. She didn’t
need a fucking shiv.

The living room door splintered and
burst inward. She heard it,
felt
it.

The berserker was coming.

Her crew was coming.

But she didn’t need them.

They exploded into the room, her
men, ready to tear Jeremy apart.

She sat up, holding him by the
throat in a grip he’d never escape. Ellis screamed when he saw her face and ran
mindlessly for her, but Jack grabbed him and tossed him away.

“Do not take my kill,” she said,
recognizing that her voice was different, but unsure how. She didn’t care.
“I’ve got this.”

But they were men who loved her,
and they all wanted a piece of the evil.

And they deserved it.

She acquiesced.

A girl made sacrifices for those
she loved.

She lessened her grip on his
throat.

He was too mad—too insane—to be as
afraid as he should have been. “I’ll die,” he whispered, his words just for
her, “but you’ll spend eternity with me.” He brought the shiv up, preparing to
take her to hell with him.

Her men snatched him away then,
none of
them
willing to sacrifice. As they hacked him to pieces, Ellis
leaped onto the bed with her, covering her bloody body with his.

She was fading from the blood loss,
devastated by the silver, in agony from the cuts.

Ellis held his wrist to her little
fangs. “Take the blood, Rune. Take the blood.”

But the berserker pulled her out
from under Ellie, his face covered with blood not his own.

Jeremy’s malevolent blood decorated
the walls of her bedroom, his howls of agony fading to sighs of death.

Strad looked at Ellis. “I will feed
her.”

“Okay,” Ellis said. “Okay.”

Levi stood beside Ellis, his eyes
fierce, bright. “Thank you, Rune, for allowing us to avenge you. To avenge Lex.”

She smiled. “Thank
you
,
baby.”

Or that’s what she meant to say.
Maybe she spoke, or maybe she didn’t.

But she forgot him as Strad carried
her to the living room where things were less bloody and crowded. Her men would
deal with Jeremy’s body and the mess they’d left behind.

He sat in the big armchair and
cradled her in his arms, his embrace so different from Jeremy’s she didn’t know
how to take it.

He stared down at her, his eyes as
fierce as Levi’s had been, as dark as the night outside her window. “You will
feed from me. But first I will take the taste of that bastard from your mouth.”

He lowered his lips to hers,
snatching the breath from her lungs, the thoughts from her head. There was only
the feeling of his kiss, his mouth, his body.

The pain was chased away by his
kiss, and she gladly drowned in the embrace from a man who would never hurt
her.

He finally dragged his mouth from
hers, his eyes hot. When he held his wrist to her mouth, she shoved it away.

Shoved it away and dropped her
fangs, then went for his throat.

Fuck a wrist. His throat was so
much more…appetizing.

“Oh fuck,” he whispered.

I am my monster.

My monster is me.

And they both smiled as they fed on
the blood of a berserker.

Laken Cane is the
pseudonym of a published paranormal romance author currently living in the
Midwest. Shiv Crew is her debut book under this pseudonym and the first in the
Rune Alexander series. You can learn more about her and join her mailing list
at
www.lakencane.com
, follow her on
Twitter @lakencane, or friend her on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/laken.cane.3

Watch for book two in
the Rune Alexander series,
Blood and Bite
, coming soon.