Obsidian Wings (21 page)

After she dropped Lex and Raze at the clinic, Rune stopped
by her house to shower, pick up a gun, and call Ellie.

River County looked like a different place. It’d been
ransacked, burned, and broken, its streets littered with the dead and dying.

Houses still smoked, and sirens shrilled constantly as
firefighters and policemen did their best to control the fights and fires.

The identically dressed slayers were a rare sighting now,
but the damage had been done. The citizens of River County stumbled down the
streets with blank, soot covered faces and bloody bodies, some of the calling
desperately for lost family members.

News vans roamed the city, filming the destruction.

Looters were carrying goods from destroyed shops, cars were
stalled and burning in yards and streets, and the intermittent, haunting cries
of children could be heard echoing from newly parentless homes.

She changed clothes and grabbed a gun, then called Ellie as
she left her house. Her new home, amazingly enough, was not on fire, though it
seemed like every window it possessed had been shattered.

“Ellis,” she said, when he answered his phone, “it’s me.”

As she started to get in her car, four red-clothed slayers
ran down the street.

“Rune,” Ellie cried, his voice tinny. “Are you okay? Where’s
Levi? Is he—”

“One second, baby,” she said, and slid Strad’s phone into
her pocket. She aimed her gun and shot one of the coming slayers between the
eyes. As his friends turned their guns on her, she shot another one.

Bullets whizzed by her as she holstered her gun, shot out
her claws, and used the speed her monster gave her to drop the other two where
they stood.

Then she retracted her claws, wiped the slayers blood from
her hands to her jeans, and took her phone from her pocket. “I’m fine,” she
said, as though their conversation had never been interrupted. “Levi and Denim
are on the mountain tying up some loose ends.” She paused. “It’s good to hear
your voice.”

“Backup came in from other counties,” he said. “We wiped out
the slayers, didn’t we?”

“Looks like it,” she said. “At least the ones who made the
mistake of attacking us. We’re going to have a lot of cleanup ahead.”

“The hospitals are overflowing. They’re flying people to
different cities.” His voice was tearful and he sounded close to the breaking
point. “So many people hurt, and killed…”

“I know. We’ll get everything sorted out, Ellie. I’ll be by
the office as soon as I can.”

“I’ll have coffee waiting,” he said, and sniffed. “Love
you.” She could almost see him wiping his eyes.

She smiled and put the phone back into her pocket, surveying
the area to make sure there were no more slayers lurking.

An ambulance, lights whirling and sirens blaring, flew down
the street and stopped a half a block from where she stood.

As she walked back to her house a woman darted from behind a
bar and ran screaming for the paramedics.

Order would be restored, but it was going to take a while. A
long fucking while. COS had ruined themselves—at least in River County. Horner
had bet everything on his demon, and he’d lost.

She gave her jeans a disgusted glare. She had slayer blood on
her and would need to change clothes. Again.

She put her key into the lock and then pushed open the door
to her house. She sighed as a piece of broken glass jarred loose from one of
the windows and hit the floor.

The house was quiet and empty, but traces of those who lived
there lingered, making it feel alive and…homey. For the first time in forever
she found herself looking forward to settling in for a quiet night at home with
those she loved. Then she snorted and grabbed a change of clothes from the closet.

If she wasn’t careful, she’d end up gardening and baking
cookies and shit.

Finally dressed, hands scrubbed clean of all traces of
blood, she hurried back down the hall and into the living room.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered as her phone flew out of her
hand to land with a clatter upon the floor.

She leaned over to grab it. At that exact moment she heard a
click and a strange whirr, and a draft of air brushed her hair as something
whooshed over her head.

She didn’t think about it. She dropped to the floor and
rolled, her claws already out.

Strad’s cell had saved her life—if she hadn’t dropped it,
the blade her would-be assassin had sent her way would have taken her head.

The attacker was already gone as she jumped to her feet,
crouching, looking wildly around the room for the danger.

He was gone.

“What the fuck?” she said. Then, louder, “What the
fuck?
”

The only place he could have thrown the blade from was the
broken living room window.

She yanked open her door, then loped around the house. She
saw no one.

She walked the street, searching for the person who’d tried
to kill her.

But he wasn’t there.

Then, something light and somewhat familiar wafted by, a
smell so delicate and faint she shouldn’t have caught it at all. But she did,
and she recognized the scent.

It was the scent of the man who’d attacked her before—the
scent of a human.

A
human.

How could a human dare attack her from so close? More
importantly than that, how could he just disappear? It was as though he’d never
been there at all.

But that elusive, teasing scent lingered, and she pulled it
deep into her brain, memorizing it.

The scent of a human, but some kind of fucking…
super
human.

She went back inside and stared at the blade he’d left. The
strength of the throw had embedded it in her wall.

She grasped the part sticking out, avoiding the sharp edges,
and forced it free. Had she been anyone else, a pair of pliers and a lot of
muscle would have been required to work it free.

The weapon looked like a long, skinny razorblade. There were
no dull edges on it—all four were razor sharp.

He couldn’t have thrown it. He’d
shot
it.

Every day, new weapons and ways to execute them were
created. Every single day.

This was one she hadn’t seen before…and one she wouldn’t
mind getting her hands on. Her crew could use this type of weapon.

She had her very own assassin. “Sweet,” she said.

Later, she’d discuss her hit man with the crew, Rice, and
Elizabeth, and they’d figure shit out.

She wasn’t worried. She was
curious.

And a niggling thought kept occurring to her. That somehow,
the memory-wiped shifters and her assassin were connected. After all, they’d
both started around the same time.

Maybe they were connected to the church, but she doubted it.
She didn’t get a COS feeling from either one of them.

She dropped the blade into a leather bag, draped it over her
shoulder, and went out to lend a hand to the people of River County. And, if
she had a chance, kill any slayers who remained.

The night seemed to last an eternity, but as the sun rose to
cast a weak light over the city, Rice called her in.

She walked into the building, the scent of coffee hitting
her even before Ellie ran around the corner to meet her, a huge mug in his
hand.

“Bill said you were on your way.” He gave her the coffee,
then wrapped his arms around her.

She didn’t mind the pain from the fang inside his shirt—she
was simply too tired to care. As soon as he released her she turned up the cup
and gulped down half the coffee. “Good,” she groaned. “So good.”

Ellis updated her as they walked to Rice’s office. “Raze
will be okay. I feel so badly for him. All those burns.” Ellis shook his head,
then shuddered before continuing. “Lex is doing great. When I called to check,
the nurse said Lex was telling Raze jokes to see if she could get him to
smile.” He grinned at her. “
I
know
what would make him smile.”

Rune winked at him. “And the others?”

“Jack and Owen are here—they’re in with Bill drinking
gallons of coffee.”

“Strad?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure where he is.”

“Here’s what we know,” Rice said, when Rune and Ellis walked
into his office. He ran a hand over his face. His eyes were bloodshot, the
circles underneath them so dark they made him look like he’d been punched.
Maybe he had. “Slayers are dead, dying, or escaped, but they are no longer in
River County. We did it, despite our governor’s refusal to send in the National
Guard.” He smiled at each of them.

“What about the slayer’s doctor?” Rune asked. “Johnson. Any
sign of him?”

Rice pursed his lips and shook his head. “It’s going to be a
good while before I have a tally of every person affected by this attack.”

Elizabeth walked into the room. “I apologize for being
late.”

Rice’s phone rang and he excused himself to answer.

“Fie okay?” Rune asked Elizabeth.

“Yes, thank you.”

“George?”

Elizabeth’s smile lit up her face. “That’s why I’m late.
George woke up.”

“That’s great,” Rune said.

“He went back under.” She accepted the cup of coffee Ellis
handed her, taking a sip before continuing. “But I’m optimistic.”

“Did he say anything?”

“He asked for his mother.” Elizabeth’s smile dropped. “Then
he seemed to remember what happened.”

“Poor little boy,” Ellis said.

They were all silent.

“What about the memory-wiped shifters?” Rune asked, finally.
“Anything new with them?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “They remember nothing about their
pasts or what happened to them. One of them did remember his first name though.
That’s a start. Maybe their memories will come back and we can figure out what
happened to them.”

“Any signs of abuse?”

“Needle marks,” Elizabeth said. “But their lab work came
back clean. No drugs that we could find.” She frowned. “We still have to order
more tests. Some scans. The female had a burn mark behind her left ear.”

“And you can’t say
doctor
without them going nuts,”
Rune said.

Strad walked in, and the tightness in her chest eased.

Bill hung up his phone. “I just got word there was another
murder. A couple of cops found a body tortured and nailed to the back of an old
gas station.”

“In the Moor?” Owen asked.

“Nope,” Bill answered. “This one is right in the middle of
Spiritgrove.”

“When?” Strad asked.

Rune looked at him and found him watching her. He winked,
and she smiled slightly, unable to help herself. Then she cleared her throat and
studied her hands.

“I don’t know,” Bill said. “With the chaos in this city,
it’s amazing the body was noticed at all. Our people are a little busy right
now, but we’ll put him on ice until we get a chance to look at him.”

“Maybe COS did it before the attack,” Rune said, “and it’s
just now being discovered.”

Rice’s eyes were bright. “I’ll tell you this. COS is done.
They might not know it yet, but they’re done—and not just in our city.” He
beamed. “In our
world.
”

“I’m not convinced the church is ever going to die out
completely,” Rune said.

“Right now, you don’t need to worry about anything other
than going to sleep. Go home, get some rest. All of you. I’ll see you back here
in the morning.” He looked around at all of them. “Good work, Shiv Crew. Good
work. You have my thanks.”

But they didn’t need any special thanks.

They were Shiv Crew.

It was what they did.

“I don’t see you for years,” the man said, his grim,
tattooed face unmoving. His brown eyes were emotionless, with not so much as a
tiny gleam to make them look anything but dead.

“I need a favor,” Rune said, quietly.

“Why should I do you any favors? You the bitch help put me
here.”

She smiled. “Are you going to hold a grudge, Leon? You may
get out someday. You’ll need a friend.”

He snorted and looked down his nose at her. “You no friend
of mine, Alexander.”

“Think about it, dude. I’ll owe you one. And I always pay
what I owe.” The words made her think of Cree Stark, and she wondered for a moment
if she wasn’t selling her soul to the devil—or Leon Lafitte—just as Cree had
sold hers to COS.

“I see you on TV,” he said, slowly. “I hear bad, bad things
about you.”

“No doubt they’re all true.”

He contemplated her for two long minutes without speaking.

She waited silently, letting him think.

Finally, he ran his hand over his bald, inked head. “What
you want?”

She glanced around, meeting the cold gaze of one of the
guards. He held her stare for a second before looking away.

She leaned forward. “Come closer, Leon.”

He slid closer, a light of curiosity in his eyes. “What?”

“You’re still in contact with Annie.”

“Yeah. So? She never getting out. At least you don’t put
her
in prison—she have killed your ass by now.”

Again, Rune smiled. “Does she still think you’re the center
of the universe?” Knowing she did.

“Always will,” he said, leaning back and crossing his arms.
“Me and Annie…” He trailed off and looked away from her, as though she might
see the truth of his feelings in his eyes.

She didn’t need to see. Leon and Annie’s obsession for each
other was legendary. For them, there was nothing else. “I need you to convince
her to do something for me.”

Then it was his turn to smile. It wasn’t a nice smile. “If I
do this thing for you, you owe me for the rest of your life.”

“I’ll owe you,” she said, “for the rest of
your
life.”

He frowned.

“Well?” she asked.

He stood, and two guards started toward him, almost too
casually. They knew what Leon was capable of—maybe even more than Rune did.

Just as the guards reached him, he leaned over to murmur, “I
get it done.”

Yeah, she’d sold her soul to the devil.

But in the next few days, or weeks, or maybe even months,
she’d get a phone call telling her the deed had been done.

And she’d have sold her soul twice for that.