Killing Land (Rune Alexander Book 8) (13 page)

Because she’d underestimated him.

She couldn’t have said why he hadn’t. Why he’d risked her
bite, his addiction, his capture, when he could have—

“Bang, you’re a dead monster,” someone muttered, and before
the words left his mouth, he’d pushed the barrel of a gun halfway through her
ear.

She heard him squeeze the trigger.
Felt
it.

Then a flashing silver blade sliced through his neck, and
his head, hanging by a couple of bloody threads, hit the ground a half second
before his lifeless body joined it.

And she stood staring in shock at the most beautiful man
she’d ever seen in her life.

Her breath left her lungs in a loud whoosh. “Ah,” she
managed.

She shook her head, dazed, shocked.
Almost
uncomprehending.

He darted his gaze around, his blade ready, but finally,
finally, he met her stare.

He sighed.

She reached out her fingers, almost forgetting to retract
her claws before she touched his face.

“Hello,” he said.

“My God,” she whispered.

He nodded and his hair, long and thick and shining with a
thousand different silky threads of color, slid over his shoulders. “I’ve been
waiting for you.”

She almost couldn’t bear to look at him. His face hurt her
eyes, her heart,
her
mind. “It’s you,” she said. “It’s
you?”

“Yes.”

The beautiful man was Gunnar the Ghoul.

No.

Gunnar the
Wise
.

She couldn’t meet his stare for long, and seeming to realize
the impact it had on her, he lowered his frightening, spectacular gaze to the
ground.

She wrapped her arms around him, caring little that she
should be angry or upset with him. Part of her had believed she’d never see him
again. That he was what the path had taken from her.

And in a way, it had.

The battle went on around them, but she barely registered
it. Her people would take care of the few men who remained.

“I killed the witch,” she said. “And the curse was broken.”

She felt him nod.

He’d stiffened the moment she touched him, but she hugged
him anyway. Finally, taking pity on him, she withdrew and wiped her wet cheeks,
surprised to find the tears.

“Happy tears,” she murmured, smiling.

“Tears have no emotions,” he said, “in and of
themselves
. You are happy, not—”

“Shut up,” she said. Then, “I have candy.”

He looked at her once again and she was relieved to find the
weight of his stare had lessened. “I do like the candy, Your Imperiousness.”

She drove her claws through the chest of a man who
windmilled
his way toward her after Denim punched him in
the face, and it finally dawned on her that Raze and the twins had arrived.

“I must go,” Gunnar said, glancing at something behind her.
“I will find you again.
When it’s time.”

She turned to see Gage Delaney stepping from a car, his face
blank. He had some explaining to do, the bastard. Six of his men stood ready.

She turned back to Gunnar. “No need to—” But she stopped
midsentence.

Gunnar was gone.

“Damn ghoul,” she muttered, but fresh in her mind was his
face.
His body.

Gunnar was…
hot.

She shuddered.

That was just wrong.

“Rune,” Jack said, wiping his blade on his shirt, “you were
ignoring the fight and hugging a stranger. That’s cause for concern and
curiosity.” He flashed a grin, but his eye held uneasiness.

“Jack.” She strode with him toward Gage, almost afraid to
tell him. It was too unbelievable. “That was no stranger. That was
Gunnar
.”

He didn’t even laugh in disbelief. He didn’t say anything,
either.

“I’m serious,” she said. “That was Gunnar.”

“That was no ghoul,” Levi said, appearing on her other side.
“That dude was fucking—”

“Watch it,” Ellis said, walking beside him. Then he grinned.
“But he was one sexy man.”

“Are you okay, Ellie?” Rune asked. She shook her head. “When
Gunnar showed up, I…”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “And that’s what’s worrying me.”

“I’m fine,” she snapped, suddenly afraid she wasn’t. She’d
nearly had her brains splattered against a tree because she’d been caught up in
watching the assassin. Then Gunnar had appeared, and there’d been nothing but
him.

“I never said you weren’t fine,” Jack said, calmly. “Your
attention is wandering, though, and that’s not like you.”

No it was
not
like her.
Especially
during a battle.

But they reached Gage Delaney, and she put the worry about
her mental status away. She put Gunnar’s new face away.

“Give me one reason not to drop you where you stand,
Delaney.”

He crossed his arms, and stared down at her. His expression
might have been the same had she been complaining about the weather.
Slightly annoyed, not at all in fear for his life.
“Settle
down, Alexander. I didn’t sic those men on you. I came as soon as I heard the
bastards had gone after you and your crew.”

“You’re saying those weren’t your men?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Why’d they come after us?”

He pressed his lips together and pinned her with a sharp,
unfriendly stare.

“Well?” she prompted.

“I explained already that you’re not welcome here.”

“Because I’m an
Other
.”

“Because you’re an
Other
,” he
agreed, “and because you’re the law.
Because you’re an
outsider.
Because of any number of reasons.
It
shouldn’t surprise you that some of the people who live here are going to take
offense at you and your crew sauntering in, trying to take over.”

“We’re here to help them.”

“You didn’t ask if they wanted your help, though, did you?
Just demanded they take it.”

“That’s what we do,” she replied, coldly. “We save people
from monsters. Sometimes we save monsters from people.” She stepped closer,
wishing she were tall enough to get in his face. “And sometimes, we save people
from themselves. So fuck you and your thugs. We’re going to do what we came
here to do.”

Jack crossed his arms. “Don’t get in our way again.”

Gage stared him down.
“Or what?”

“Or we’ll give you a few more bodies to bury. We don’t fuck
around, Delaney.”

“Because you have the law on your side,” Gage said, his lips
smiling but his eyes dark and empty.

Jack shrugged.

“Were any of you hurt?” Gage pulled his watch cap down a
little further over his forehead.

She glanced around at her crew. “Not enough to worry about.”

He drew in a deep breath,
then
blew
it out gently. “I’ll do what I can to rein in the ones who don’t want you here.
Nothing else I can do.”

“You can ask them to talk to us,” Rune said. “And you can be
a little more forthcoming with information about your fucking monster.”

“We’ll handle him ourselves.”

“You can’t protect this town,” Rune said. “We can.”

“And I can promise you,” Jack said, “we won’t fuck it up.”

“You’re already fucking up.” Gage replied to Jack but didn’t
take his stare off Rune.

She didn’t look away. “We’re here to help, Delaney. Spread
the word.”

“I’ll ask you one more time to leave town. Things could go
badly for you.”

She frowned. “We’ll take our chances.”

“Leave us alone,” one of his men said, and spat at Rune’s
feet. “Go home, bitch.”

Jack shot out his fist, and the sound of crunching bone was
loud in the cold air. The man fell to the ground and lay like a slug.

Delaney met Jack’s challenging stare, unmoving for one long
moment, and then he shrugged. “That boy never did know how to talk to the
ladies.”

“Thanks, Jack,” Rune said, lightly.

He grinned.

Roma gave a loud, worshipful sigh,
then
realized she’d drawn everyone’s attention. She shot a glance at Jack as color climbed
her pale cheeks, and then she turned and walked swiftly away.

“Poor kid,” Ellie murmured, watching her go. He put his arm
around Levi’s waist.

Two of the men at Delaney’s back glanced at Ellis and Levi,
then at each other. One of them opened his mouth. “You—”

“Shut your goddam mouth,” Delaney
said,
his voice mild.

The guy paled,
then
stepped back.
He cleared his throat. “Yes sir.”

He held a lot of power, Gage Delaney.
A
lot of fucking power.
The question was, why?

“Who the
fuck
are
you?”
she asked him.

“Why, I’m not anyone.” His voice was bland, his face
expressionless, except for a twinkle of contrived humor in his eyes.
“Just a man protecting his people.”

“Next time we’re attacked, Delaney, I’m coming after you.”

His lips twitched. “We would have an interesting battle,
sis.”

“I won’t warn you again.”

“Your house is waiting,” he told her, his voice polite. “You
can follow Slater there.” He raised a hand to the man who’d followed them
earlier. “My men will clean up this mess.”

“Rune?”
Jack asked. “We ready to
leave or are we staying?”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“I hope you’ll find your house comfortable,” Gage said,
smiling.

He wanted them gone, but gave them a house.

That was fucked up, but she understood.

Better to have them gathered in one place where he could
keep an eye on them.

She could feel him watching her all the way to her car, and
even as she drove down the hill.

She wanted to shiver.

She didn’t.

“What is he, Rune?”

She shrugged, following the truck to her temporary new base.
“I don’t know, Ellie.”

“He scares me.”

“We don’t meet too many sweethearts,” Jack said. “Roma is an
exception.”

Rune could almost feel Roma blushing.

“So what’s our plan?” Ellis asked.

“We haven’t seen the town yet,” Rune replied.
“Just the graveyard and Delaney’s house.
We’ll split up and
do some exploring.”

“What about the newly delicious Gunnar?” Ellis asked.

“He took off when Delaney arrived.”

“Where’d the assassin go?” Jack leaned up toward the front
seat. “We need to talk to him.”

She nodded. “You’re right. We’ll have to find him.”

“He’ll find you,” Ellis said.
“When he’s
ready to talk.”

She hit the steering wheel.
“Fucking
secrecy.”

“This entire town is full of secrets,” Roma said. “That’s
why they don’t want us here.”

Rune thumped the wheel again, but lightly.

The man driving the truck—Slater—stopped on the street in
front of a large house no prettier than any of the others. He hit his horn and
drove on down the street.

“Let’s unload some of our stuff and eat,” Rune told them.
“Then we’ll decide what to do.”

“Let’s talk about Gunnar,” Ellis said, later, when they sat
around a large wooden table eating cold sandwiches. The rough old house had
power and a working electric cook stove, but they didn’t want to waste daylight
by waiting for food to be cooked. “I mean…seriously. Gunnar.
God.”

“He looks the way he looked before Damascus hit him with the
curse, or spell, or whatever it was. She made him a ghoul.
Made
him ugly.
I imagine that’d be particularly devastating when he was so
gorgeous to begin with.”

The others nodded.

“It’s hard to believe that was the ghoul,” Raze said. “Are
you absolutely sure it was Gunnar?”

“Oh yes. I’m sure.”

“Why is he here?”

“We didn’t have time to talk before Delaney showed up. I
assume he’s here because he can help us.”

“Or,” Ellis said, “
because
he wants
something.”

“Ellis,” Levi said, standing up and downing his beer. “Stay
here. You’re not a field op. Stay here.”

“I’ll leave you the gun, Ellie,” Rune said. She wasn’t about
to leave him alone and unprotected.

Levi nodded. “I was going to ask.”

They froze when something started scraping at the front
door. Rune got an image in her mind of the Reaper scraping his scythe down the
door. “Shit.”

“What is it?” Denim asked.

She shook her head and stepped into the living room. Damn
town was making her uneasy and filling her mind with weird shit.

She yanked open the door, more than a little angry, her
fangs dropping. Then she stared.

The crew crowded the doorway.

“Holy mother,” Jack said. “Is that your dog?”

Rune stepped back.
“Um.”

Grim—who they all remembered digging around for the heart of
the body in River County—had changed once again.

The pup he’d been had disappeared, buried somewhere beneath
the rippling skin and huge frame. He no longer resembled Sorrow.

“What is he?” Denim asked. “I mean…what
is
he?”

Grim slunk into the house, his tail down, ears flat,
movements slow. He barely fit through the front door.

“
Awwww
,” Ellis said, and left his
place against the wall to rush toward the dog. “Sweet little thing is scared,
aren’t you, baby boy?”

Jack grabbed the back of Ellis’s shirt before he could reach
Grim and hauled him back to safety.

Levi took his arm. “I’ve got him.”

Jack, not taking his stare off Grim, nodded and released
Ellis’s shirt.

Grim was black as night and had lost his shaggy puppy hair.
His fur was gleaming and short, and wrapped around his huge but almost skeletal
frame like a fur coat that was a size too large.

“He looks like a mutant bat crossed with a rat,” Raze said,
and he moved back a couple of steps.

Rune walked carefully to the dog. “You okay, Grim?” She held
a hand out to him.

He tentatively sniffed her fingers,
then
gave them a little push with his cold nose.

“He’s hungry,” Ellis said, pulling away from Levi. “Look at
him.
Poor, poor little thing.”

“He’s not little in any sense of the word,” Rune said
absently, her stare on the dog.

Ellis patted the dog’s neck. “Come on, Grim. I’ll feed you.”
He shot a scornful look at the others.
“Scared of a dog.”

Grim followed him, slowly and a little suspiciously, his
bony ass nearly hitting the ground when he unfurled his extremely long, thin
limbs to walk.

“He’s no dog,” Jack said.

“No shit.” Rune swallowed. “He’s from Skyll, remember.”

“He needs to stay out of sight,” Raze said, shutting the
door and then heading for the kitchen. “Someone will shoot him.”

He was right. “Better not be you,” Rune said, and she was
only half joking. Anything that resembled a rat wasn’t safe around Raze.

Before she could follow Raze into the kitchen, someone
knocked at the door. Jack pulled it open, his gun ready.

“Will,” Rune said. “Come in. We need to talk.”

The assassin stepped into the room. “Yes.”

“Come into the kitchen. We’re mapping out a game plan.”

“And,” Jack growled, “
we
need more
information from you. Everything you know, we want to know.”