Free Wormwood Echoes by Laken Cane

and end the bloodsuckers.
    There was no hope for them. They couldn’t survive without blood, and she couldn’t allow them to torture women and children to get what they needed.
    Eventually, the world would create a way for the vampires to live once again with humans. In the meantime, they had to go.
    Yes, they were rotting and would die anyway, but not quickly enough. Not before they killed—and turned—more humans.
    Once again, the vampires were hated, hunted, and killed on sight.
    Even the Annex, pro-Other, couldn’t see another way out of that.
    Not then.
    Maybe not ever.
     
     

Chapter Fifteen
    “What do you want us to do?” Lex asked. “Are we really going to purge Simon and his children today?”
    “Do you know of a better way to stop them?” Rune stared moodily out of her kitchen doorway, into the mean desolation of the Moor. “We have no other choice. They’ve given us no other choice.”
    “I know,” Lex murmured. “But it’s not their fault, really. I’m devastated for them.”
    Me too. “We have no other choice,” Rune repeated, but her voice was softer.
    “There are people working on synthetic blood,” Levi said. He took a cup off the countertop and poured himself some coffee.
    “That might take forever,” Rune said. “Labs tried making it before and it didn’t sustain the vampires.”
    “They didn’t try hard enough,” Denim said. “And funding was low. No one thought it would be a money maker. Now they do.”
    “Maybe,” Rune said. “But synthetic blood won’t keep the sick vampires from rotting.”
    “It could keep the vampires from feeding on humans and getting infected in the first place,” Denim said. “And it could stop them from abducting humans.”
    “They’ve become wild animals,” Lex said. “The vampires.”
    The vampires hated the humans for poisoning them, and once taken, the humans did not fare well under the vampires’ care.
    The corpses found lying in ditches and in the woods showed chilling proof of abuse the abducted humans—children as well as adults—suffered at the hands of their captors. Whatever positive changes Simon Kelic had created in River County had evaporated almost overnight.
    It began to rain, a cold drizzle that did nothing to help Rune’s frame of mind. The sun was hiding, the sky was overcast and gray, and she felt every bit of it in her mood.
    She and her crew would begin the hunt for Simon Kelic, and when they found him, he would die.
    More vampires would come. They’d sneak into the county and go to ground, then creep out during the nights to hunt.
    It was going to be a long, hard war whether she killed Simon or not.
    “What if we kill him and they find a cure next week?” Lex asked. “What if?”
    “We can’t go on what ifs,” Ellis said, his voice brusque. He bustled around the kitchen, constantly moving, not looking any of them in the eye.
    He didn’t want them to know how relieved he was that the humans were going to war with the vampires. Killing the vampires.
    He didn’t want them to know.
    But they knew. Of course they knew.
    Rune sighed.
    “Coffee, Rune?” Ellie asked, his voice a little too high.
    “No, baby. My stomach sloshes when I walk.”
    “Food, then. I’ll cook something up. You’ll need to eat before…”
    “That’s good, Ellie. Make us some lunch.”
    He was suddenly beside her, his arm around her waist. “I hate it when you’re depressed. Hate it.”
    She drew back, a little, at the savagery in his tone. “I’ll be okay.”
    “The world is screwed, Rune. You were right. It doesn’t matter what we do, does it?”
    She frowned. “Ellie?”
    “Ellis,” Levi said. “Don’t.”
    “You’re dying this time,” Ellis said, ignoring Levi. “We all know it. It’ll take longer to destroy you than normal Others, but you’re dying. Maybe your brain will remain, and we’ll scoop it up out of the goo and plop it into a glass so we can—”
    “Ellis,” Lex screamed. “Shut your