Free Wormwood Echoes by Laken Cane Page B

were also hiding inside the magical gates.
    And the vampires would be rising.
    Dying.
    Now that she’d made up her mind, had hardened her heart to what she had to do, she was eager to get it done.
    Simon would know she was coming, and he would know she had no choice.
    He’d been sending his children after the ‘pure’ humans—infants. And he’d been slaughtering pregnant women. He was buying from traffickers.
    They all were.
    Yeah. He knew she was coming.
    He wouldn’t know that she’d find him, though.
    Or maybe he was too sick to care.
    Ellie had tried to convince Levi to wear his fang necklace. Levi had just snorted and refused to entertain the notion, and eventually Ellis had dropped the vampire repellent back under his shirt.
    She had some moments of bittersweet nostalgia as she led her crew, blades and vguns ready, through Wormwood.
    Suddenly Raze, as they loped through the graveyard, pulled a small silver axe and sent it whirling through the air. It buried itself in the back of a wolf’s head.
    No warning, no hesitation.
    “Raze,” Rune said, stopping at the side of the dead wolf. “He doesn’t look sick and he didn’t approach us. Why’d you kill him?”
    “If it’s Other, it’s dying,” Raze said, yanking free his axe. “He would soon be sick, if he wasn’t yet.”
    Lex made a sound, drawing their gazes.
    She looked toward Raze, her eyes jerking, horrified. “What’s wrong with you?”
    He closed his eyes for a long second, drawing in a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
    “Rune and I are Others,” she said, furious. “Will you kill us as well?” She strode to him, then bared her neck. “Go on. Cut off my head.”
    “Lex,” he started, and reached out to touch her shoulder.
    She jerked away from him. “Fuck you, asshole.”
    “Lex,” Levi said. “Calm down. We have orders. The Others are spreading the rotting sickness. They’re killing humans. We have no choice.”
    “It’s them or us,” Denim agreed.
    “ I’m a them,” she said.
    Raze looked at Rune. “What are we doing?”
    She repeated her earlier words. “If it’s hostile or sick, kill it.”
    “Kind of hard to figure that out from a distance,” Jack said.
    Lex put her hands to her head. “It’s so confusing.”
    “I know,” Rune answered. It was confusing. Did they kill indiscriminately? Or did they give those few Others who weren’t sick a chance?
    “Rune?” Levi asked.
    “Okay, here’s the deal. Kill if you know the Other is sick or hostile. If you don’t know and aren’t attacked, leave it alone. Good enough?”
    Because in the end, the Others were going to be wiped out anyway. Lex could have her moment to think otherwise if she needed it.
    Jack nodded. “Okay then.”
    “Gunnar,” Owen said.
    The ghoul had been standing in the shadows of the trees long enough to know exactly what they were discussing. “Do not attack,” he called. “I would speak with you, Your Slaughterousness.”
    “I’ll be right back,” she told her crew, and jogged to him.
    “You have fed?” he asked, when she stood in front of him.
    She frowned. “Not for a while.” Not since the fucking berserker.
    “It is good that you have your crew to keep you alive. They will feed you.”
    “Yeah. What’s up, sexy?”
    “Will you slay me if I take the sickness?” he asked, his dark eyes worried.
    “You’re not killing humans, are you?”
    He put his nose into the air. “Most certainly not.”
    “Then I’m not killing you.” She paused, studying his worn face carefully. “You okay?”
    “You mustn’t worry about me—we shall worry about you. It is my hope that with the magic inside you, you will defeat any harm that may come to you.”
    She put a hand to her chest. “There’s a chance I won’t get sick?”
    He widened his eyes. “Rune, there is always hope. That is what I want you to remember. There is always hope. No matter how dire things may seem.”
    She let the hope sink in. She might not get sick. She might