Killing Land (Rune Alexander Book 8) (5 page)

When she finally fell silent, her tale finished, no one
moved or spoke. In the middle of the telling, a few Annex ops and managers
trickled out and stood around the car to listen.

When she had to pause and force away the harsh pain of
remembering, they stood with downcast eyes and somber faces and let her gather
herself.

Eventually she’d gotten out of the car and stood with them
gathered around her, and she’d realized while she was talking that she kept
expecting COS or Karin Love to appear and attack them.

One by one the operatives and other Annex employees went
back inside, leaving her alone with her crew.

And her crew ached for her.

“I’m here with you, Rune,” Jack said. “And I am
always
going
to be here.”

He meant it.

At that very moment, he meant it with all his heart. But
once upon a time, Z, Strad, Lex, and Owen had also meant it.

Always didn’t really mean forever.

“I miss the way things were,” Ellis said. “I miss our crew.”
He took Rune’s hand and held it to his cheek. “I can only imagine how you feel.
But if you believe nothing else, believe me when I say that I will never leave
you. As long as I’m alive, you will never be alone. Ellis is always going to be
with his girl.” He grinned and winked at her, his eyes as clear and truthful as
a baby’s. “These are new beginnings.”

“Ellie,” she whispered. Her heart filled suddenly, not with
pain or sadness but with the realization that Ellis
would
always be the
one who stayed.

With Ellis, always meant forever.

Roma slapped her slingshot against her leg and glared around
at them all. “Stop making her cry.”

Jack began guffawing and Rune punched his shoulder, a little
too hard. He staggered back and tripped over Grim, who was sprawled out asleep
on the pavement.

Grim, jarred abruptly from his sleep, jumped to his feet and
began growling ferociously.

“Rune,” Jack yelled. “Call off
Cujo
before I shoot the mutant son of a bitch.”

But Rune couldn’t stop laughing. She realized it was a release
of sorts, and she leaned weakly against the car, letting it out.

With identical dark looks of disgust, both Jack and Grim
growled and then turned and stomped away, but in opposite directions.

Finally Rune’s laughter trailed off and she wiped her eyes.
“I’m exhausted,” she said, still smiling. She grabbed the twins’ hands. “Let’s
get inside and I’ll feed before I go talk to Bill.”

“You’re going to be okay, Rune.” Ellis said, still smiling.
“I’ll make sure of that.”

She nodded. “It’s good to be back, baby.”

And it truly was.

“One more
hug
,” she murmured,
craving their arms around her almost more than she craved blood.

Ellis, the twins, and Raze stepped in immediately.

The five of them stood in a tight circle, unspeaking,
unmoving, connected by all they were and all they’d been.

Yes, some of them were missing, but she couldn’t dwell on
it.

She put it away. At last, she put it away.

Maybe later, when she was alone and the world was quiet,
she’d cry for what she’d lost. But right then, she closed her eyes and let
herself be grateful for what she had.

She stepped out of their warm arms and smiled, glancing
around at the world as though she were seeing it for the first time.

“New beginnings,” she told Ellie.

He put his hand to his heart and nodded, blinking away the
moisture in his eyes.

“Rune,” Raze
said,
his voice low.
“Something’s wrong with your groupie.”

Roma had slid to the ground, her slingshot wound tightly
around her hand. She stared toward them, but there was no comprehension in her
unblinking, blank eyes.

She twitched gently.

“Shit,” Rune said, and hurried toward the girl. “She had a
seizure after we left the path. It might have permanently fucked with her
mind.”

She squatted beside Roma, peering into her face.
“Roma?”

The girl wasn’t seizing like she’d done once she’d left the
path. Other than the staring, sightless eyes and the occasional bouts of
twitching, she would have looked completely normal.

Raze leaned down from his great height and before Rune could
stop him, grabbed Roma’s shoulder and began shaking her.

Roma growled and shot up from the ground, startling them
all. She had her slingshot in her grip, aimed at no one in particular and
everyone in general.

Rune stood and held up a hand. “It’s okay. You were seizing.
We—”

“I wasn’t having a seizure. I was asleep.” She glared at the
others, but when her stare landed on Rune, it held nothing but esteem. “The
trip has drained me.”

“That’s a fucking crazy way to sleep,” Raze growled.

Rune blew out a hard breath. “The path would drain anybody,
and you’re in a completely different world. I should have gotten you settled in
before now.”

“It’s not your job to look after me,” Roma said, offended at
the very notion. “It’s my duty to look after you.” She lifted her chin. “I’ll
settle when you do.”

“You give the phrase
pain in the ass
a whole new
meaning, Roma. You’re going to piss me off on a regular basis, aren’t you?”

Roma yawned.

Rune sighed. “Ellie, show Roma to a room where she can rest.
Don’t argue,” she said, when Roma opened her mouth. “Go with Ellis and get some
fucking sleep. When I’m finished talking with Bill, I’ll take you home.”

Roma straightened her back.
“Your home?”
There was a plea in her eyes and a bit of fear she couldn’t hide from Rune.

“Of course,” Rune replied. “I’m not going to abandon you,
Roma.”

Ellis took Roma’s arm. “That’s not who Rune is. She’ll take
care of you.” He patted the girl’s arm. “Come with me, honey.”

As Ellie led her away, Roma threw a quick look back over her
shoulder at Rune.

Rune’s wink seemed to reassure her.

“She’s trouble,” Raze said, his voice deep and rumbly and
irritated.

Rune frowned. “Why would you say that?”

Raze was good at reading people, and Rune trusted his
assessment of them.
Usually.
But he was off the mark
with Roma.

He crossed his big arms and stared at nothing. “You traded
Lex for her. That’s—”

Rune strode to him and waited for him to look down at her
before she spoke. “Watch your fucking mouth. I love you, but I will kick your
ass if you say one more time that I left Lex there. She
stayed
. I didn’t
leave her. She left us because she fucking wanted to. She wanted to.”

His eyes were so full of pain that Rune had to relent. “I’m
so sorry, baby. I know how you feel.”

He nodded, finally, and his arm muscles relaxed beneath her
grip.

“Let’s get inside,” she said.

She fed from the twins, allowing a moan to escape when she
lost herself, for just a few minutes, in their blood.

Afterward, her monster stretched and curled up to sleep,
satisfied.

Bill was waiting for her.

“Rune,” he said, motioning her into a chair. “I have coffee.
God, I missed you.”

She sat down, surprised at his admission. Bill wasn’t the
most emotional or expressive of people.

“The city has gone to hell since you’ve been gone. Things
changed in such a short amount of time…” He gestured helplessly. “Everything is
different.”

She took a drink of coffee. “The
Others
will heal. Nothing will be the same, but it will get better, Bill.”

“I don’t know who I am anymore.” His voice was so low she
wouldn’t have heard him had she been human.

Maybe he hadn’t wanted her to.

“Catch me up. What do I need to know?” she asked.

“Do you remember the Next?”

“Yeah.
The group made up of
Others
.”

“They fight against
Other
equality.”

“Most of them should be dead from the rotting disease.”

He nodded. “I’m sure some of them are, and some of them
aren’t. I mention them because they’ve been making some noise lately.”

Just then the phone on his desk rang, and he held up a
finger. “Excuse me. I take every call nowadays.”

She nodded and took another sip of her coffee, watching him.

He looked like shit. His eyes were dull and bloodshot, and
new lines had appeared on the dry, grayish skin of his face. His hair clung to
his scalp in limp, lackluster strands.

He hung up the phone and stood. “We’re to look out the
window.”

She got out of her chair, put her coffee on the desk, and
walked with him to the floor to ceiling windows. “I don’t see…”

But then she did see.

Others.
Dozens of
Others, shuffling and limping into the Annex parking lot, gathering in a somber
little crowd.
They stared up at the Annex windows, and gradually, one by
one, they caught sight of her.

It was easy to see how sick they’d been, those survivors.
Ragged and filthy and hollow-eyed, with stringy hair and fading
bruises and skeletal faces.

She saw Jack and Raze, and at first thought they were trying
to keep the
Others
back, away from the Annex. But they
weren’t. Both her men walked slowly among the
Others
,
simply talking to them. Then they gazed up at her.

Jack pulled his cell from his pocket, and in seconds, a text
tone sounded on Bill’s phone.

He pulled it from his pocket, glanced at it, then at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Jack says they were told you were back and that you brought
the cure you went after. That you saved them.” He nodded toward the growing
crowd of healing
Others
. “They’re here to show their
gratitude. To thank you for what you did for them.”

She closed her eyes, guilt squeezing at her brain. “It was
because of me that they got sick in the first place.”

“Rune.”

She opened her eyes to look at him.

“Just tell them they’re welcome. They need a hero. You’re
it. You saved their lives. Just tell them they’re welcome.”

She put her palm against the glass, staring down at the
Others
who’d survived the rotting sickness.

They were hers.
Her people.
Her responsibility.

And she realized something.

She loved them like a vampire loved his children.

What seemed like an eternity had passed since anyone had
thought to show Ellie’s sign. It’d faded away and had been forgotten, or so
she’d thought.

But then, standing below her in a sad little knot of proof
that life and love could survive nearly anything, the
Others
showed the sign.

As one, they touched their chests, right over their hearts,
and raised their hands to her.

To her.

She turned her head to look at Bill when he made a sound,
and found him watching the
Others
, his mouth working,
his face wet with tears.

“Bill,” she murmured, and wrapped her arm around his waist.
“We’ll be okay now.”

He smiled through his tears. “Maybe we will, Rune. Maybe we
will.”

And they stood quietly with their arms around each other,
hope blossoming in their hearts, until the last
Other
had left the lot.

Rune pulled her new cell from her pocket and hit speaker.
“Eugene.”

“Rune,” Eugene said, his voice booming. “It’s good to hear
your voice again.”

“I’m happy to be back.” She navigated the car around a rusty
van that had seen better days and sped down the highway.

“You saved the world, you know. Not just for the
Others
, but for the humans, even though most of the
ungrateful bastards won’t understand that.”

“I couldn’t have done it alone.”

“Sure,” he said.
“Sure, Rune.
Where
are you now?”

“Just leaving the Annex.
Bill
caught me up and I’m heading home with the guys.”

He hesitated. “I’m sorry you lost some of your crew.”

“Yeah.”

“You talked with Bill, then. He
seem
okay?”

Rune shrugged, though Eugene couldn’t see her. “He’s
hurting, but…” Again, she shrugged.
“Life and everything.
You know.”

“I do. Are you going to take it easy for a few days, or get
right back in the swing of things?”

“I want to work.”

“Of course.
I imagined that would
be the case.”

“When are you coming back to River County?”

“Whenever they’re done with me here.
Soon.”

“See you then.”

She hung up and glanced over at Roma, who stared out the
window as the world flashed by her. “How are you doing, Roma?”

“I’m okay. It’ll take me some time to get accustomed to this
world, I think.”

“Yeah, it will.” Rune drove a little faster, happy to be
headed to her house in the Moor. The Annex op sitting in the back seat would
return the car back to headquarters. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Roma turned away from the window to look at Rune. “Do you
trust your people?”

Rune raised an eyebrow. “I trust my crew.”

Roma nodded. “Then I shall, as well.
Unless
they give me reason not to.”
She squeezed her ever-present slingshot.
“In which case I will kill them.”

“Calm down there, Roma Ruthless. You won’t be killing my crew.”
She glanced in her rearview. It had begun to rain, and the street shone wetly
beneath the streetlights.

Raze followed closely behind her, Grim in the back of his
truck.

She didn’t know where Shiv Crow had gotten to, but figured
she’d see him when he was ready to be seen.

Ellis was waiting at home, likely with a huge meal and a pot
of coffee.

She felt a little spark of relief and joy at the thought.

“Why are you smiling?” Roma asked.

“I was thinking about Ellis.”

Roma nodded. “He’s a good man.”

“The best.”

“Jack is…I like Jack. Raze…”

“Not so much?” Rune asked, smiling.

“He’s arrogant.”

“Just a little bossy.”

“He has red hair.”

Rune looked at her, surprised. “You have red hair.”

“Yes. But I’ve found redheaded men to be crybabies.”

Rune laughed. “Raze is no crybaby.”

The Annex op leaned forward. “He
is
afraid of rats,”
he said, helpfully. “That’s what I’ve heard. Didn’t he spend some time in
county for freaking out and killing a
wererat
?”

Roma nodded solemnly, satisfied.
“Just as
I suspected.”

Rune shook her head, grinning. Raze would have stomped off,
his face red, had he known what they were saying about him.

“What happened to Jack’s eye?” Roma asked.

“He lost it in battle.” And that’s all she would say about
that.

“As your bodyguard,” Roma said, “I’ll need to know as much
as possible about all the people who surround you.”

“Bodyguard,” the op said, before Rune could open her mouth.
“Rune Alexander with a bodyguard!”
He slapped the back of
Rune’s seat, guffawing.

“Shut up, dude,” Rune growled. “Roma, you’re not—”

“I will guard you with my life,” Roma interrupted, angry.
“Whatever you want to call it is fine with me.”

Rune sighed.

“I’m sorry, Princess. But—”

“Princess,”
the op shouted. “Princess has a
bodyguard!”

Rune stopped the car, a fact of which the op might have been
more aware had he not been rolling with laughter.
“Dude.”

“Yes, Princess?” he asked, wiping his cheeks as his laughter
finally dwindled into occasional chuckles.

“Get out.”

“Out?”
He smiled, his eyes
mystified as he met her gaze in the mirror.

“Out of the car.
You can walk the
rest of the way.”

“It’s a long walk to your house, Alexander.”

“Hmmm,” Roma said. “And you don’t even have red hair.”

A text tone sounded and Rune looked at her phone to find a
text from Raze.

Why’d you stop?

To abandon a smartass op.

He gave his horn a quick honk as he drove on by them.

“Fuck,” the op muttered, but opened his door and climbed
out.

Roma, apparently afraid the same fate would befall her, kept
her silence.

Rune smiled all the way to her house—even though she knew
the op’s greatly exaggerated tale of the Princess and the Bodyguard would soon
be making the rounds.

Jack and twins were waiting at the kitchen table when she
and Roma walked in. Raze leaned against the wall, studying his phone.

Ellie bustled around the warm, bright room, and scents of
baking pie and tangy spaghetti sauce hung in the air.

In the corner, Grim lay on a yellow blanket which was ten
times too small for him. He chuffed a greeting when Rune looked his way.

Rune took it in, accepting the rightness and the perfection
just as she accepted the pain and the loss.

Her crew watched her.

“Welcome home, Rune,” Ellis said, finally, and handed her a
cup of hot, black coffee.

“I’m a lucky woman.” Rune placed her shotgun on the
countertop. She didn’t try to explain to them what she felt. They knew.

She sat down at the table with her people. Her heart, full
of holes and slightly dented, began to heal.

“Dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” Ellis said.

Rune pointed at an empty chair. “Have a seat, Roma.”

Jack stood and pulled out a chair for the girl.

“Thank you.” She sat down, but her shoulders were stiff, her
eyes were downcast, and her face was completely closed off.

“What’s your story?” Levi asked her.

“No story,” she replied. “I don’t remember my life before
Skyll.”

“Why’d you decide on a slingshot for a weapon?” Jack reached
across the table and picked up the slingshot, which Roma had placed on the
table in front of her.

She snatched it away from him. “I liked it,” was all she’d
say.

Rune knew all about secrets and wanting to keep her business
to herself. The girl would tell them her story eventually, if she wanted to.

It was hers, and they had no claim to it.

“What are you?” Raze asked, finally leaving his place
against the wall and taking a seat.
“Some kind of shifter or
something?”

Roma darted a quick, panicked look at Rune.

“Leave her alone, you nosy bunch. Ellie,” she went on,
changing the subject, “call Bill and ask him to join us.” She didn’t like the
thought of him alone in his darkness.

“Already did,” Ellis said, cheerfully. “He declined.” He
carried a huge bowl of mashed potatoes to the table.

Levi stood and took it from him before placing it carefully
in the middle of the big table.

“He’ll be okay, Rune,” Jack said. “Just has a lot to deal
with.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but he doesn’t have to be alone while
he’s dealing.”

“That’s the way he wants it,” Denim said. “Other than at
work, we don’t see him.”

“I don’t like it,” Rune replied. “Bill was having some
issues before Elizabeth’s death. He’s struggling.”

“What issues?” Raze asked.

“I never found out. Shit kept happening.” She shrugged.
“Then he told me to fuck off. I’ll pay more attention to him now and see if
there’s anything we can do.”

“I heard Eugene is bringing a replacement for Elizabeth back
from Washington,” Ellis said.

Rune groaned. “Why? We don’t need more new people.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I don’t think Bill is happy about it
either.”

“Do you have a name for the new guy?” Denim asked.

“No,” Ellis replied. “Somebody carry this stack of plates to
the table so we can eat.”

Rune got up and fetched the salad, while Jack got the plates
and forks.

“New people,” Raze grumbled.
“Too much
trouble.”

Roma glared at him, and he pointedly ignored her.

“Ellie, something’s burning,” Rune said.

“Lord,” he shrieked and ran for the oven.
“The
pie.”

But it was just a little scorched, and not one of them
minded.

“It’s perfect, baby,” Rune said, after they’d eaten dinner
and were digging into dessert. “Somebody pass the ice cream.”

Later, as she lay in bed alone, images of her berserker and
the cowboy and the little blind
Other
came sneaking
into her mind. She drifted off, eventually, but when she awakened the next
morning, evidence of her broken heart had soaked her pillowcase in sad, damp
crimson.