Strange Trouble (5 page)

With a self-consciousness she was not accustomed to, she ran
her palm over her scalp and avoided the intenseness of his steady gaze.

Immediately, he pulled her hand away from her head. He
caressed her palm with his thumb. “You hide from no one.”

Yes I do, Berserker. I hide from everyone.

She straightened her spine and made herself forget the
foolishness of caring about how she looked. There was no room for pretty in her
life.

He started to pull weapons from the belts crisscrossing his
big body, but she stopped him. “There’s no time for foreplay.”

She jumped, and he caught her against his chest. With an
almost audible click, she dropped her fangs.

But when he bared his neck, she hesitated. “Berserker—”

“
Shhh
,” he said. “Do it.” He
caught her gaze and smiled. “You can’t hurt me, Rune. Not with your teeth.”

It lay unspoken between them, the question she had no answer
for. Yes, she could hurt him. She could shatter his heart.

She had no reassurances for him, either, but he’d deal with
it. It wasn’t like he didn’t know her. Everyone around her realized she was
fucked up.

Relationship material?
Not so much.

So she was bound to hurt him.

She sank her fangs into his neck almost angrily, but her
anger was forgotten at his groan of relief and the taste of his blood.

Her need for blood was becoming more intense. Her monster
would no longer be kept down, would no longer wait patiently, or let her
command him.
It.

Me.

His blood spurted down her throat in a strong, hard rush, as
though it knew her urgency.

Maybe it did.

Her monster sighed.

The berserker muttered something. Maybe it was her name,
maybe God’s, but she was so lost in the moment she didn’t care. She was getting
what she needed.

So was Strad.

His skin was warm against her lips. She got a sudden image
of him in her bed, on top of her, his hands hard on her body.

It was a vivid image, so real and colorful that she cried
out even as she pulled more of his blood into her.

The blood bond between them was growing stronger.

That might not be a good thing.
But she pushed the
thought out of her uneasy mind. Right then there was only the blood, the power,
and the ecstasy.

At last she forced herself to pull away from his neck. His
blood wanted to keep her there—it seemed to stretch between them, urging her
back, urging her to feed.

But she would kill him if she kept drinking. He, in his
bliss, would fall happily into that bloody abyss.

So she forced herself away.

“Berserker,” she
said,
her voice
soft and thick. “I feel better.”

He stared. “You look better, too.” He kissed her then,
before she could leave him to go find a mirror.

She always looked better after a feeding.
Healthier,
anyway.

But she had a feeling that wasn’t what he meant.

The berserker’s kiss melted her, though, and she forgot
about mirrors as she wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her mouth
beneath his.

She gave herself, high and full of life and the berserker’s
blood, a moment to feel his kiss.
To lean into it, to allow
herself the joy of it.

Then she pushed away from him. “I have men to feed,
Berserker. We have to find Z.”

He stepped away from her, his hand slightly unsteady as he
ran it through his hair. He swallowed, hard. “I’ll take Jack and search for Z.”

“And Owen.”

He glared.
“Yeah.”

She didn’t push it. “While you’re gone I’ll take care of
Levi. If my blood doesn’t heal him…”

He reached out to squeeze her shoulder. “Feed him, Rune. The
rest is not up to you.”

She nodded. “Be careful.”

He followed her back to the living room. She ran a hand over
her scalp. It was itching, and as she touched her head she realized new hair
had begun to grow.

It sprouted up in an almost sharp growth, and suddenly she
understood the berserker’s look. Her hair was growing back.
Already.

That was what her monster did for her.

She heard Levi’s moans as she walked down the hall, and she
broke into a run. The crew gathered around the couch on which he lay.

Raze leaned over the infected twin, holding him down.

“What’s going on?” Rune asked.

Raze glanced at her, his gaze going immediately to her hair.
“He’s hallucinating.”

“He’s back in COS,” Lex said, her voice full of tears.

Denim knelt beside the couch, murmuring in his brother’s
ear.

“Fuck,” Rune said. The twins and Lex had grown up in the
church—the COS founder was Karin Love.
Lex’s mother.
To say Karin had abused Lex was an understatement. “Move over, Denim,” she
said, gently. “Let me feed him.”

Something thumped against the door.

“The zombies know we’re in here,” Lex said, shuddering. “I
hate the fucking zombies.”

“They smell us,” Rune said.

“We have to clear a path,” Strad told Jack. “Let’s go find
Z.”

“And Owen,” Rune reminded.

Once again he glared at the mention of Owen’s name. It
didn’t matter that he was a little jealous of the cowboy. Owen was Shiv Crew,
and Strad would not abandon him.
“Yeah.”

“You two
be
careful. I don’t want
to lose you.” She met the berserker’s gaze.
“Either of you.”

He grinned.

She was not accustomed to the berserker smiling so much. It
was fucked up. He and Jack went into the kitchen to try sneaking out the back
way. The fewer zombies they had to fight, the faster they could track Z and
Owen.

Levi screamed and struggled beneath Raze’s hands.
“God, no.
God, no, no.”

His face was a mask of horror, his eyes wide, peering into a
past no one could see but him.

And maybe Lex and Denim.
She
glanced at them.

Denim’s face was carefully blank but he couldn’t keep the
terror and grief out of his blazing eyes. “Fuck, Rune,” he said, his voice so
hoarse she could barely understand him. “Help him.”

“I’ll do my best, baby.” She pulled a shiv from its sheath
and sliced a line across her wrist. She had a scar there where a COS leader had
fed.

Sometimes her monster wiped out all traces of injury, but
sometimes the scars remained. She was amassing quite the collection.

She could feel Denim holding his breath as she held her
wrist above Levi’s lips. But the sick twin thrashed against Raze’s restraining
hands, and the blood splashed onto his cheek.

“Lex—”

“I’ve got him.” Lex grabbed Levi’s head. She held him still
with a grip that proved her strength. Lex was not as fragile as she looked.

Rune drew in a deep breath and pushed her bloody wrist
against Levi’s mouth. “Drink, love,” she begged.

But he didn’t drink—and why would he? He was not aware that
he needed to. He was lost somewhere in the terror of his past.

The blood ran inside his mouth anyway and down his throat.
In the end, he didn’t need to suck. The blood went where he needed it to go.

Rune was beginning to think she would escape the pain when
it hit her with brutal force. Agony roared, ferocious and hateful, and attacked
her.

Ah, fuck.

Then she was lost in overwhelming pain. Some part of her was
aware, briefly, of Denim catching her as she fell. Someone, probably Raze, held
her wrist firmly to Levi’s mouth.

If not for that, she would have run screaming from the room.

The pain was not a sensation any person—no matter how strong
or how familiar with pain—could handle. Or comprehend.

It kicked her ass.

In the darkness of agony, there was nothing else.
Only pain.

Except suddenly there
was
something
else.

She screamed, maybe. She meant to.

Screamed as something came out of the
darkness to join her in her misery.

“Hello, Rune,” said the mad master vampire, Nicolas Llodra.

You’re not real. Get out of my head.

Oh God, the pain.

She was going to die. If her heart didn’t burst from the
strain, if her mind didn’t break, Llodra would kill her.

You’re immortal, Rune.

Fuck me, fuck me—

They’re killing me here.

Fuck—

Don’t let them kill me. You need me.
He pulled back a
little, his smile hideous in his thin, tormented face.
You just don’t know
it yet.

And he was gone, just like that.

If he’d ever really been there.

But he had. He had.

And because he’d been inside her mind, she knew without a
single doubt that she and Llodra were connected.

They were connected, and she would not escape the madness.

She just had to accept it.

“Rune, Rune,” Lex called. “Wake up.”

And the blind
Other
reached into
the dark fog and pulled her into the light.

“Know how I find the silence?” Rune muttered.

“What is she saying?” Raze asked.

“Nothing.”
Lex’s voice was brusque.
“She may have given Levi too much.”

Levi. Levi…who is Le—

Abruptly her mind settled inside her body with a dizzying
finality, and she was Rune again.

She opened her eyes. The pain was gone. The crew stood above
her, staring down with varying expressions of worry.

She frowned as an image of Llodra swam into her mind. Llodra
was back in River County being…
cared
for by RISC. Soon he’d be dead and
she…

Again, she frowned, uneasy.

“Rune?”
Lex knelt beside her and
took her hand. “Are you okay?”

She shook off thoughts of Llodra and sat up, shaky and weak.
“How is Levi?”

Lex shrugged. “He’s quiet. But he’s still…” She shook her
head.

“Fuck,” Rune said. “Fuck!”

Her blood decided whom to heal. It had healed Lex, but
refused to heal Tim Emerson, the man who’d tried to burn her and the
berserker’s child to death.

He languished in prison, tormented beyond belief because he
was addicted to her blood and could not feed. But his brain tumor would kill
him long before his cravings did.

She sat beside Levi, resting her hand on his chest.
Please.
Heal. Heal.

His dry skin was pitted and dotted with oozing sores. They
were visible through the thin, lank strips of hair that remained on his skull,
and were thick on his hands. Even between his fingers.

She leaned over and pressed her lips to his. “I’m sorry,
Levi,” she whispered.
So sorry.

“Don’t give up yet,” Denim said, but his voice was lifeless.

Levi’s cell began to ring.

“It’s Ellis,” Lex said, as though she could see the display.

Thankful Ellis wasn’t there to witness Levi’s suffering,
Rune took the call.
“Ellie.”

“No,” Ellis begged. “No, Rune.”

“He’s still alive.”
Barely.

“Did you feed him?”

“Just now.”

“And you didn’t heal him? You didn’t
heal
him, Rune?”

God.
“I’m sorry.”

He sniffed. “Put the phone on speaker, please.”

“Ellie…”

“Put it on speaker so he can hear me, Rune.”

What a fucking terrible way to say goodbye. She put the
phone on speaker, then wiped a bloody tear from her cheek and laid the cell on
Levi’s chest.

But she was getting physically stronger.

The feeding had been awful…terrible. Still, she sat there, a
little weak but okay. Maybe eventually the pain would be less, as well.

Maybe.

“Levi,” Ellis said.

Rune closed her eyes, not sure she could handle Ellis’s
pain, his pleas,
his
torment. He was her Ellie, and
she could not bear for him to hurt. God knew she’d caused him enough pain.

She stood and turned to walk away.

“Levi,” Ellis repeated. “If you die on me I will
never
forgive you.”

Rune lifted an eyebrow.

“You have Rune’s blood,” Ellis continued, “and you have my
love. All you need is the will. Do it, Levi.”

Willing it for him, Rune clenched her fists. “Heal, Levi.
Heal.
”

Levi moved restlessly. His eyes flickered open, then closed
again.

Denim straightened slowly. “I feel him in there. I feel
him.”

Gooseflesh erupted on Rune’s skin and she rubbed her arms,
shivering. “Keep talking, Ellie.” Were his sores looking a little less…sore?

She sat back down and once again, put her palm on his chest.
He felt warmer. And it wasn’t her imagination. “Levi,” she demanded. “Wake the
fuck up, baby. Come back to us.”

He opened his eyes.

But that was not a good thing.

His eyes were dilated and feverish. He skimmed over Denim
and Lex until he found her, then pinned her with his stare.

His
zombie stare
.

“Ah fuck no,” she shouted,
then
wished she could grab the words back when Ellis’s screams came out of the
phone.

She jumped to her feet and backed away, away from the
horror.

“God,” Ellis yelled. “What is it, Rune?” But he knew.

Denim stumbled away so fast he fell, then scrambled up again
and ran for the door.

“Denim,” Lex cried. “Don’t you leave me,
too!
”

But not even Lex could make him stop. He fought with the
door locks, not appearing to have even heard her, and flung open the door. He
slammed it behind him with an awful finality.

Then he was gone.

Once again, Raze put a hand on Levi’s shoulder, holding him
down.
“Rune.
What do you need me to do? Should I...”
He couldn’t say the words.

But he was horrified. They all were.

Ellie’s sobs came through the cell, loud and heartrending.

Levi began to struggle and the phone fell to the floor. No
one picked it up. Lex was frozen in place, her hands to her mouth, her
sightless eyes wide.

“I don’t know.” Rune fingered the hilt of a shiv. “I don’t
know, Raze.”

Levi, his eerie stare still on her, wanted to rise. He
struggled harder and then reached up to try and pry Raze’s hand off his
shoulder.

“Let me up, Raze,” he said suddenly, angry. “I have to go to
Rune.” He blinked, and suddenly his eyes were…they were normal.

No one moved, no one even breathed. Ellis’s crying stopped
abruptly.

Raze,
his eyes a little too wide,
looked at her.

Finally, Rune found her voice. “Levi?”

He frowned and grabbed Raze’s hand. “Get off me, man. What
the fuck?”

But still, they were afraid. Afraid to believe, afraid they
were dreaming.
Afraid.

Lex eased toward him. “Levi,” she said, her voice broken.
“Please?”

Raze, watching Lex, let Levi go.

He sat up and Lex threw herself against him. He wrapped his
arms around her but never once stopped watching Rune. “I’m okay, Lex. What’s
going on?”

He didn’t know. He didn’t remember.

And he was alive.

But…

He gently pushed the sobbing Lex off him and stood, walking
with shaky determination to Rune.

She stared up at him. “Levi?” It seemed to be the only thing
she could say.

“I heard you calling me,” he said, frowning even as he spoke
the words, “and I had to come.”

Rune put her fist to her mouth, horror in her heart.
“My God.”

What the fuck had she done?