Strange Trouble (18 page)

“We have to find them,” she told the crew as they left the
bar.

“They could be anywhere,” Jack replied, “so that might be a
little difficult.”

She glanced at Owen. “How is Elizabeth?”

“Doing better.
She’s strong.”

Her phone buzzed.
“Ellie?”

“Are you okay, Rune?”

“I’m fine.
You?”

“I’m staying for a few more hours then I’m getting out of
here.” He hesitated, and when he continued, it was with a deep tone of pride.
“Bill Rice has asked me to cover for Elizabeth until she’s better.”

“No, Ellie. I don’t think—”

“It’s what I’m doing.” His voice was soft, but firm. “I’m
going to do my part.”

“Your mother will not be happy.”

“My mother has never been happy, and nothing I do or don’t
do will change that. I’m coming to help. You just be careful.” Again, he
hesitated. “I wouldn’t want to live in a world without you, Rune.”

She blinked away quick tears. “Okay,” she managed, and put
her cell back into her pocket.

“What did he say?” Levi asked. “Is he all right?”

“He’s breaking out of the hospital in a few hours. Rice has
asked him to take over for Elizabeth until she’s back.”

Levi sighed but didn’t argue.

They stood in the dirty snow around Rune’s car. Every single
one of them looked slightly shell-shocked and tired in the cold light of the
morning.

“Before we go zombie hunting,” she said, “let’s find a
restaurant. Have a hot breakfast and some—”

“Coffee.”
They all said the word at
the exact same time, smiling slightly.

“Yes,” she agreed.
“Fucking coffee.”

Ten minutes later she pulled into the parking lot of a small
diner, the others right behind her. The scents of hot coffee and cooking meat
made her stomach groan as she started toward a table against the far wall.

The place was crowded with other patrons grabbing a hot
meal, and Rune didn’t at first pay attention to the sudden silence.

But as she pulled out a chair and started to sit down, it
hit her, that silence.

She and the crew stared at the roomful of humans, and the
humans stared back with sullen faces and angry eyes.

“Can’t we even eat our breakfast without being exposed to
the fucking monsters?”

Rune looked at the speaker, a small man in a suit. He sat at
a table with two other suited guys, and as with pretty much the entire room,
not one of them had friendly faces. “If you see a monster here, sir, be sure to
let us know. We’ll protect you from them as we always do.”

“Who will protect us from your fucking ugly face?” This was
from a man in the back. He wore a motorcycle jacket and a ponytail.

“You’d think they’d be a little too scared to fuck with us,”
Rune said. “Something’s up.”

After all, she was known to be a stone-cold killer, and the
men at her back were large enough to give any normal person pause.

But then, Lex stepped up beside her, her body vibrating.
Fear came off her in waves, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
“COS,” she whispered, and put a hand to her chest.

Rune nodded.
“Yeah.”
And then she
spotted them.

The slayers, six of them, sat at a corner table in the back,
right next to motorcycle dude. When they noticed her watching, they smiled.

“Bastards,” she said.

Raze started toward them and as one, they got to their feet.

Each slayer held a handgun.

“Raze,” Rune said. “Not worth it. We’ll find another place.”

“Good idea,” one of the COS members said. He was a tall man
in a gray suit and a tie, unremarkable and bland.
Except for
his eyes.

They shone with hatred so dark she almost took a step back.
Almost.

“Walk away,” she told her crew. “I’ll be right behind you.”
There were too many humans in the room.
If COS started
shooting, half of them would probably end up dead.
She didn’t want to
risk the crew, either.

“The men can stay,” Gray Suit said, “but you need to go
somewhere and eat with the other dogs. This place doesn’t allow animals.” He
pointed to the door. “There’s a sign outside that says so.” His lips twitched.

“You’re hilarious,” she said. “But you need to shut the fuck
up before I change my mind and let my crew tear you to pieces.”

His cold stare raked Lex, who stood her ground beside Rune,
despite the fact that her body was racked with shivers stronger than the
vibrations.

Then Lex moaned, swaying gently.

The twins and Raze gathered around her, gently easing her
back. Strad and Jack slid up to stand beside Rune. Owen stood at her back.

“Those guns,” Rune told the COS members, “won’t stop me.
While shooting me is still a thought in your minds I’ll have ripped them from
your hands and shoved them down your throats.” She tried to calm herself—the
rage was there, and it was overwhelming. She wanted to hurt them. She wanted to
fucking
hurt
them. She shook with the powerfulness of her emotions, of
reaction. She wanted to kill. She wanted to taste blood. She wanted someone to
suffer.

She heard a phone ringing, and realized only when she heard
Jack muttering tersely into it that it was his phone.

Owen squeezed her shoulder and she felt his breath in her
hair. “Anyone not wanting to die should leave the room.” His voice was calm,
but full of steel.
“Now.”

Chairs scraped the floor and the customers tripped over each
other running for the exit.

And for a second, Rune saw doubt in the slayers’ eyes.

“What about you,” she murmured. “Do
you
want to die?”

“No,” Gray Suit answered. “But we want the
Other
you’re protecting. We want Karin Love’s daughter. Give
her to us and no one from the church will ever set foot in your city again.”

Lex began screaming, tormented and terrified. Rune realized all
over again that what COS had put her through, what her
mother
had put
her through, was never going to leave the girl.

“Know how I find the silence?”

“Get her the fuck out of here,” she said.

Because she would always protect Lex, and because she was so
full of rage and torment and the need to kill, she started toward the men.

She was going to destroy them.

And those killings would be fucking justified.

How Jack stopped her, she’d never know. Just suddenly he was
there, his nose against hers, his voice bringing her back from a killing edge.

“Rune.
Not yet.”

“One good reason,” she said, realizing she’d shot out her
silver claws and that her fangs were cutting into her lip. It’d been an
automatic response to the bloodlust, and she hadn’t even been aware.

God, she hated COS.

“I’ll give you two,” Jack replied. “You’ll go to jail, Rune.
And…” he hesitated and lowered his voice. “Rice has located the items we were
wondering about earlier.”

At last, she focused on his face, his words.
“Items?
You mean…?”

“Yes.
At the hospital.”

Shit.
The hospital—where
Fie
was.

She retracted her claws and fangs and turned with her crew
to walk away, but turned back for one last warning. “If I see any of you so
much as look at Lex, I will rip your throats out. And I’ll enjoy the fuck out
of it.” She waited, but no one replied. They stood still and uncertain with
their guns pointed and their faces pale.

“Just give me an excuse,” she said,
then
strode with her men from the diner.

The twins had put Lex in the backseat of Rune’s SUV and sat
on either side of her, their arms around her.

They looked at Rune with identical hopeless gazes when she
opened the door and climbed under the wheel.

“You didn’t kill them?” Denim asked, slightly accusing.

“No. How is Lex?”

He met her stare in the mirror. “She’ll be okay.”

“Lex?”

“I’m okay, Rune.” But her voice was flat, devoid of hope. As
though she knew that someday she’d be once again in the cruel grasp of COS and
there wasn’t one fucking thing she could do about it.

Owen pulled open the passenger side door and climbed inside.
He said nothing, but his stare lingered on her torn lip.

She licked the blood from it, a little self-conscious under
his regard. He closed his door and she waited for him to buckle up before
speeding out of the parking lot.

“What’s going on?” Levi asked. “Where are we headed?”

“Zombies have been sighted,” Owen answered.
“By the hospital.”

“Think they’re the new zombies?” asked Denim.

“Don’t know,” Rune said, “but I look forward to kicking some
ass. I have to get this fucking energy out and that’s as good a way as any.”

“I know a better way,” Owen said.

She didn’t look at him. Fucking cowboy was trouble. She’d
known it all along.

“Dude,” Lex said, a little stronger. “I like you so I’m
going to give you some advice. Don’t fuck with Rune. The berserker will tear
you apart.”

Owen glanced back at her.

“I’m afraid for you,” she continued. “I read him. I
know
what’s in there. He will kill you over her, and he will make it hurt.”

“
Fuck,
Lex,” Rune said.

“I saw into that blackness. You should know, Owen. You too,
Rune, if you didn’t already.”

Rune couldn’t help but look at Owen.

He was watching her, a slight smile on his lips. “I’m
willing to take the chance.” He shrugged. “And that’s just something else you
should know.”

Shit.
She put her stare back on the road. She didn’t
need that kind of trouble. And the berserker couldn’t think beating the shit
out of an interested guy was an option.

But Strad Matheson did whatever the fuck he wanted. And she
didn’t see that changing anytime soon. No matter
what
she
said.

Lex leaned up to peer at Rune. “He will not beat the shit
out of him, Rune. He will kill him.”

“Dammit, Lex.”
The blind
Other
hadn’t even touched her, had just plucked the thought
right out of her head.

Lex snorted. “I didn’t do anything anyone in this car
couldn’t have done. You don’t take the berserker seriously enough. I know what
you’re thinking.” She leaned back and
continued,
her
voice grim. “But you need to do some rethinking. Strad Matheson used to scare
you. He still should.”

Rune grunted. She and the berserker were going to have a
long fucking talk.

Just not right then. Right then, there were zombies to
destroy.

When they arrived at the hospital, there were people all
along the front holding crude and hastily made signs, and it took her a few
seconds to realize the signs were not about her or monsters in general.

They were about Fie.

The humans, probably guided by COS, had decided the child
was a monster.

Rune snatched a cardboard sign out of a startled woman’s
hands and tore it into pieces before glaring at the others. “She’s a little
kid, you fucking idiots. She’s just lived through shit you cannot even imagine.
And you’re out here holding signs demanding the hospital what, put her down?”
She sneered, angry and a little alarmed. “You’re the monsters.”

The sign holders backed away carefully, eyes wide, a little
shamefaced. But she knew as soon as she and the
crew were
out of sight, they’d start again with their chants and their hatred.

“Where are the zombies?” she asked Jack.
“Call
Rice.”

He was off the cell in moments. “One caller said he saw one
around back by the loading dock. Another caller reported two of them headed
toward the front. We need to find them before someone is bitten.”

“Spread out,” she said.

But they were too late.

As they jogged across the pavement, the screams began.

She felt the zombies before she saw them.

The bond was still there.

The fucking bond was still
there.

There were only six of them, but she had no doubt that more
would follow. And keeping it quiet was no longer a possibility.

The zombies lurched with single-minded determination toward
the small knot of sign-holders, who scattered with horrified screams when they
caught sight of the rotting monsters.

The zombies weren’t the new zombies, so the crew had that to
be thankful for. Still, zombies were dangerous—no matter what flavor they were.

Rune shot out her claws and ran toward the zombies, her crew
at her back. It took them less than five minutes to dispatch the monsters.

When the zombies lay at their feet, various body parts
scattered across the pavement, she retracted her claws.
“So
much for keeping the military out.”

“They’ll send in a few people to scout the area,” Strad
said.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. He adjusted his eye patch. “With only a
couple of zombies here, they won’t do anything drastic.”

“You know these can’t be the only ones,” Levi said.

“Nope.”
Rune surveyed the area. Two
cars from the police department cruised toward them. “But all we can do is
wait
for reports and take them out when they pay us a
visit.”

Her phone buzzed.
“Yeah.”

“Rune,
it’s
Ellis. Where are you?”

“At the hospital, baby.
We’ll be in
to see you in a minute.”

“Fie is missing.”

She frowned and clutched at her stomach.
“Since
when?”

“I don’t know.
At least for a couple of
hours.
I came to her room to visit with her and the nurses were in a
panic. She’s just…gone.”

“She’s here somewhere. We’ll start searching right now.”

“What’s wrong?” Lex asked.
“The little
girl?”

“The hospital seems to have lost her.”

“I’ll take care of the police and the zombies,” Strad said.
“Start looking for the kid.”

She gave him a cool look. “I’d planned on it.” She didn’t
take well to anyone giving her orders, and after Lex’s talk, she was less
inclined than usual to take the berserker’s. He was slowly insinuating himself
as a man who thought he had the right to tell her what to do, and that was not
a good thing.

Or maybe she was being overly sensitive.

He lifted an eyebrow but said nothing as he watched the cops
making their way cautiously toward the downed zombies.

She walked toward the hospital, the rest of the crew beside
her. “Lex, do you want to come with me? You guys take a floor and start
searching.”

“What about out here? She might have left the building,”
Denim said.

“Strad will search after he’s taken care of the zombies and
spoken with the cops.” She knew the berserker. He did better with the outdoors
than in. He’d search outside.

Lex stopped walking. “Rune…”

Rune stopped, as did the others, and turned toward her.
“What’s wrong, Lex?”

“I’m going to stay out here with Strad. I’ll help him search
outside the building.”

Rune wasn’t sure what to say, except, “Sure.”

Raze narrowed his eyes at the little
Other
,
though she couldn’t see him. “Why?” His voice was growly and
low,
and Rune watched as expressions of slowly dawning understanding grew in the
twins’ eyes.

They glanced at each other, then at Rune.

She looked away. It was not her secret to tell.

Only now, it wasn’t much of a secret.

Lex shrugged. “I’d rather be out here. I don’t like
hospitals. I don’t like the scents, the…” she gestured. “Sometimes the emotions
of the sick are overwhelming. I’d rather stay outside.”

Raze nodded, satisfied, then took her arm. “I’ll walk you
back to Matheson.”

She grinned, vibrating slightly. “I can find my way to him,
Raze.
Somehow.
He’s what…twelve feet behind me?” Her
voice was slightly dry.

Raze dropped her arm and avoided everyone’s stares. He
cleared his throat, then turned and strode away.

Rune hadn’t the heart to grin.

Lex made a wry face and shook her head, then went to the
berserker. Rune watched him for a moment. He looked down at Lex, and didn’t
seem at all surprised by her company.

He glanced up, straight at Rune, silently holding her gaze
as the cops talked on.

His stare was like a physical touch, hot and hard, and she
felt it penetrate every single part of her body.

And her mind.

Owen took her arm. “Let’s get to work.”

The berserker transferred his stare from Rune to Owen. The
expression on his face darkened immediately as he took in the cowboy’s grip on
her arm.

But Lex wrapped her hands around his big forearm.

He stared for a second
longer,
promise in his blue eyes, then let Lex calm him.

Shit.

The berserker and his possessiveness were getting out of
hand.

And fuck if it didn’t excite the hell out of her.

She shuddered.
“Yeah.
Let’s get to
work.”

Owen grinned.

“You shouldn’t push him, Cowboy.”

“I’m pushing you,” he replied.
“Just you.
If Strad Matheson gets in my way…” He lowered his voice, though the others were
trying hard not to listen. “If he gets in my way, we will fight.” He slid his
fingers down her arm before finally releasing her from his hot, tight grip.
“And that’s not your problem.”

“Fuck you,” she whispered, her heart beating like she’d just
fought a pack of wolves.

But he only smiled.

“How was Ellis?” Levi interrupted, and she’d never been so
grateful for anything in her life.

She cleared her throat.
“Fine.
He
sounded strong.”

I’ll take the basement,” Owen said, once they were inside
the hospital.

She watched him walk away. She watched his slouchy, casual
walk, his long, too stringy hair flopping with uncared-for abandon over his
shoulders. Watched his fingers as they caressed the hilts of his holstered
blades…

And for one brief, hot second, imagined
him naked on top of her.

Fuck. No.

Just no.

But still, her gaze lingered.

“Rune,” Jack
said,
a tone of
sympathy in his voice, “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now.”

“
I
might,” Levi said, and grinned.

They couldn’t help but grin back at him.

“Let’s find the kid,” she said. “I’ll take the third floor.”

She smiled as she climbed the stairs. It felt damn good to
smile after all the horror. Sometimes a person just had to take a smile when it
offered itself.

That made her think of Z, and her smile dropped as though
it’d never even been there.

Maybe it never had.

But lingering in her mind was an image of the cowboy and the
berserker, and she felt something tighten inside her.

Something hot and dangerous.

Something fucking delicious.