Obsidian Wings (15 page)

Rune took the phone away from her ear and squinted at it.
The bird had delivered her to COS to be tortured. She’d watched as the twins
were beaten day after day. She’d murdered an Other to take suspicion off the
birds. Off her.

And she was asking for Rune’s help.

“I’m going to help you into your grave if I see you again,”
Rune said, her voice flat. She shook her head, still unable to believe Cree’s
balls. “You guys really are fucking psychopaths.”

“Please,” Cree said. “Fin is dying. I’ll do anything you
want. I’ll turn myself in. I’ll kill myself. Use me. I’m a great fighter, you
know I am. I’ll help you, I promise.”

“Yeah. You promised me Horner if I let you keep your wings,
but I don’t have him, do I?”

“Horner? What?”

“Fuck you.” Rune clicked off, barely restraining herself from
throwing her phone against the wall.

She took a deep breath, stuffed her phone back into her
pocket, and strode into Elizabeth’s office. “What do you have for me?”

Elizabeth frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Rune sat down. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“All right.” Elizabeth peered into her computer screen.
“River County is reasonably quiet this morning, but I got a call earlier about
a situation I’d like you to check out.”

“Sure.”

“A witness claimed to have spotted a dead bird last night.
The bird was still shifted, and the caller said he looked like a pile of bloody
feathers.” She met Rune’s stare. “I can send someone else, if you’d rather not
go.”

Rune stood. “I’ll get it. The birds are fucked up, but I
don’t hold Cree and the scepters’ actions against all of them. Location?”

“Creeper’s Point. The caller said she was there with her
boyfriend. They spotted the bird around four o’clock this morning.”

“What time did she call to report it?”

Elizabeth made a wry face. “Seven.”

Rune shook her head. “Nice. She was sure the bird was dead?”

“No. She said it looked dead, but she didn’t want to get too
close.”

“I’m on it. I’ll take one of the crew with me. Anything
else?”

“Yes, but you check the bird out and I’ll send Owen out on
the other run. Call me when you find the bird. Oh, and Rune,” she called, when
Rune was in the hall.

Rune went back into the office. “Yes?”

“Bill and I have been making some plans, and I’d like to
discuss them with you and the crew tonight.”

“What plans?”

Elizabeth smiled. “Tonight. Go take care of that bird.”

She took Jack with her to Creeper’s Point. “Elizabeth said
she and Rice have been making plans. She wants us there tonight to discuss
them.”

Jack snorted. “Last time the bosses made plans, we had to
dress up and prance down the aisle of River Run Hall.”

“Yeah. God, that seems like a million years ago.”

“A lot has happened since then.”

Lost in their thoughts, they were silent the rest of the
drive to Creeper’s Point.

“If a bird was here,” Jack said, when they stood on
Creeper’s Point, “He’s gone now.”

Rune walked a few steps away, sniffing the air. “Birds were
here. I smell them. And I smell blood.” She followed her nose until she was
almost to the edge of the thick woods. “There.”

Jack whistled. “That’s a lot of blood.”

The ground was soaked with blood, the short tufts of grass
bent and broken where the huge body had lain.

“So where is he now?”

“With that much blood loss, I don’t see him getting up and
flying away,” Jack said.

“I don’t see him getting up at all, let alone flying. So where
the fuck is he?”

“There are no blood trails leading away.”

She nodded. “Another bird came and carried him off.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“It might have been Fin.” She told him about Cree’s
desperate phone call.

“The birds…” He shook his head. “They’re a little strange.”

“Understatement.”

“Did she say where she and Fin are?”

“You’re not seriously thinking we should help those
motherfuckers, Jack.”

“If she’d keep her word, we could use her and Fin against
COS on the night of the new moon.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t think she knows
how
to
keep her word.”

“To save Fin, she just might. And he’s the least…birdlike of
all the birds. I think if Cree made a deal with us, Fin would make sure she saw
it through.”

“Fuck.” But he was right. On the night of the new moon, the
birds could help them destroy COS. And no matter that she hated them, the birds
were almost matchless fighters.

“We have the new master and his vampires as well. Add in the
birds…”

“Two birds,” she said. “Cree and Fin might help, but creating
an alliance with the entire convocation will take a while. If it’s possible at
all.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Also, we couldn’t put Cree and Fin
together with the birds who banished them.”

“The birds must have been the ones who attacked Fin. No
other group could have taken him from the sky.”

“Strad will kill them both, eventually.”

“Another positive,” she said.

He laughed. “So call her back.”

Cree answered on the first ring. “Rune? Are you coming?”

“One condition. On the night of the new moon, you and Fin fight
for us against COS.”

Silence.

“You have five seconds before I hang up.”

“We’ll do it. Doctor Fin up and if he lives, we’re yours.”

“Where are you?”

Cree stepped out of the woods. “Follow me.”

Rune put her phone away and walked to the bird, Jack at her
side.

“You have any food on you?” Cree asked. “I’m really hungry.”

“No. You’ll have to catch a mouse or something.”

Cree was splattered with blood and covered with grime, and
her hair hung limp and lusterless. It changed colors as Rune watched, but slowly
and less obviously. “I’m really hungry,” she repeated.

“You have no idea how to take care of yourself, do you?”
Rune asked.

“I’ve never been without my convocation.” Even her voice was
dull. “Fin is better at it than I am, but Fin is useless right now.”

“What happened to him?” Rune forced herself to remain civil,
though she wanted nothing more than to rip the bird’s head off.

Cree led them deeper into the woods, then started up a hill,
toward the caves. “He went to ask the birds to reconsider, now that the old
scepters are gone. But the birds are confused and disorganized. They’re
fighting each other, each of them trying to claw his way to the top. They
attacked Fin.”

“You sent him into danger while you stayed hidden?” Rune
curled her lip, disgusted.

“Fin takes care of me,” Cree said. She didn’t seem even a
little ashamed. She glanced over her shoulder at Rune. “You have to heal him. I
can’t do this on my own.”

Rune was pretty sure the girl had no idea how utterly
self-centered and selfish she was. Maybe it was simply immaturity, but Rune
doubted it. Cree Stark was about as caring as cardboard. Just like all the
birds. “How much farther?”

“Just up there. I put in him the cave on the left.”

Once they reached the entrance to the cave, Cree grabbed
Jack’s arm. “After you’ve made sure this isn’t a trick, I’d like you to do some
shopping for me. I need food and clothes.”

“Lady, I’m fucking Shiv Crew, not a personal shopper.” He
shook her hand off his arm and strode into the cave, about as insulted as Rune
had ever seen him.

Rune motioned Cree ahead of her—she didn’t trust the bird at
her back—and followed them into the cave.

Fin lay on the cold floor, unmoving and colorless. He’d
half-shifted, his human body nestled in his huge wings.

As Jack stood guard, Rune knelt beside Fin and placed her
palm against his colorless, icy flesh. Blood covered him, matting his wings and
hair. Gashes and torn skin and deep wounds decorated nearly every part of his
body.

The birds hadn’t been trying to wound him. They’d been trying
to kill him.

And as she pressed her fingers against his throat, searching
for a pulse, she wasn’t sure they hadn’t succeeded.

“You need to hurry,” Cree said, kneeling beside Rune.

“Jack,” Rune said. “Take the car and see if Dr. Haas will
let you bring her here. We can’t move him. It’s like he…exploded.”

“The doctor won’t be enough,” Cree said. “He’s dying. Feed
him. I know what your blood can do. Feed him, or he’s dead.”

“I’m not feeding him. My blood might help him, but it will
also addict him.”

“Fuck you,” Cree said, clenching her fists. “Better an
addict than a corpse.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Jack told her. “But it’s not
your decision.”

“Hurry, Jack,” Rune said, sure the doubt was in her face.
Fin wasn’t going to make it.

Still, he hesitated. He looked at Cree, then back at Rune.
“I don’t like leaving you alone with her.”

“I can handle her,” Rune said. “Go.”

Cree turned up her nose. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt your
mistress.”

Jack snorted, then strode from the cave. He pulled his cell
as he walked. “Put Dr. Haas on the phone,” he said.

“You should have taken him to the clinic when you found him
like this,” Rune told Cree.

“The doctor wouldn’t take him. I called her. And she won’t
come unless your man forces her to. She hates the birds. You’re wasting time.”

“She’ll come.”

But she wouldn’t.

“I’d have to hold a gun to her head,” Jack said, walking
back into the cave. “She said she’d kill him if we needed him out of his
misery, but she won’t fix him up.”

“She’s an Other doctor,” Rune said, confused. “How can she
not help him?”

“She didn’t even hesitate. She won’t help him. She asked
where we were but I didn’t tell her. She’d have turned the birds in.”

Rune sat back on her heels. “That’s that, then. We can get
some supplies and patch him up. Maybe he’ll pull through.” But even if Haas had
agreed to come, she doubted Fin would have lived. He was too far gone.

“No,” Cree said. “No, you can’t let him die. You can’t walk
away and let him die.”

“She can’t save the world, either,” Jack said. “Let’s go,
Rune.”

“We can’t fight COS if we’re dead,” Cree whispered. “Please.
I’m begging you. Save him. Save him and we’ll defeat the church. I swear it.”

“He walked away from me,” Rune said. “He walked away from me
and the twins and
you
put me on that mountain. I’m not playing doctor
with this one and I’m not addicting him to my blood.” She hesitated. “I’m
sorry.”

And she really sort of was.

Jack pulled his gun, ready to blast the bird out of
existence if she attacked. But Cree simply squatted on the cave floor. She
began to pet Fin’s wings, slowly, carefully.

As Rune and Jack walked from the cave and down the hill,
they could hear her humming to her friend.

“Dammit, Jack,” Rune murmured.

“There’s no guarantee they’d keep their word and help us.”

“I know.”

But what if they did?

They were almost to the bottom of the hill, but Rune
imagined she could still hear Cree’s humming, haunting and sad. “Son of a
bitch,
Jack.”

“You’re going to feed him, aren’t you?”

“I don’t want to. But everything inside me is screaming for
me to save him. What if there’s a reason? What if without him and Cree, COS
wins a couple nights from now when we have to fight them?”

He stopped walking and stared down at her, then adjusted his
eye patch. “You’re going to feed him.”

“I guess I am.” And just like that, she decided. She ran
with all the speed being part vampire afforded her, and was back inside the
cave in seconds.

She’d heal those she needed to heal, but she’d never bring
another person back from death. Never.

Cree jumped to her feet. “You’re going to heal him?”

“I’m going to try. Move out of my way.”

Cree stood against the wall, trembling and sobbing. “Hurry,
Rune.”

“You’d better deserve this,” Rune muttered, and sliced her
wrist. She’d give him enough to get him started healing. No more.

That was good, because when she put her wrist to Fin’s
mouth, the pain hit her and her mind blanked.

When Jack pulled her back to awareness she was on the cave
floor and Cree was crouched once more at Fin’s side.

“Did it work?” Rune asked, her voice thick and her mind
groggy.

“What happened?” Fin asked.

“He’s conscious,” Cree told her.

Jack helped Rune to her feet. “Let’s go home, Rune. If the
bird heals,” he said, looking at Cree, “you two are to meet us on the night of
the new moon. Be ready.”

“Then you better keep the humans away from us,” Cree
answered. “I don’t want to be arrested.”

“Take care not to be,” Rune said, her voice hard. “We’re
going to have our hands full trying to keep the twins away from Horner.”

“He would like to have had the twins,” Cree said. “But he
won’t need them.”

Rune let herself lean against Jack for a moment. “What do
you mean?”

“He has your blood. He has the twins’ blood. He started
collecting their blood the day he got those boys.”

“Oh fuck me,” Rune whispered. “I’d forgotten.”

“Won’t he need to actually sacrifice the twins? I wouldn’t
think the blood would be enough.”

Cree shrugged. “He seemed to think it will be.”

“Either way, we have to stop him,” Rune said. “We can’t let
him call that demon.”

“At least,” Cree said, “you don’t have to worry that he
might snatch your boys again.”

Rune wasn’t convinced.

“What?” Fin asked, weakly.

“I’ll explain later,” Cree told him.

Rune put thoughts of the stolen blood away for later and
leaned over Fin. “Cree has agreed that you both will fight for us on the night
of the new moon. In return, I fed you. You’ll heal. Don’t let us down, bird.”

She drove back to RISC, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her
stomach. She wasn’t sure she’d done what was right. But if it’d benefit the
county, the Others, and the crew, it
had
to be the right thing.

“The birds are amazing fighters,” she said. “Against the COS
army sure to come and the fucking guns, they’ll be our greatest assets.”

“That’s true,” Jack agreed. “And that’s not even counting
the demon. You did the right thing, Rune.”

“Yeah.” But she didn’t have the greatest track record when
it came to making good choices. “I fed a fucking bird. What’s the worst that
can happen?”

Jack nodded. “They might not show. They didn’t deserve your
help, and they know that. You’re doing your duty despite the shit they helped
put you through. That makes you a great leader. Don’t doubt yourself.”

“When Rice finds out we saw Cree Stark and didn’t bring her
in, he’s going to be pissed.”

“No he won’t. Bill wants all the help he can get against
COS.”

Her cell rang, and she glanced at the display before
answering.

And somehow, she knew it wasn’t good news.

“Elizabeth?” Her stomach began to knot with the familiar
response to anxiety.

“Rune, the governor has commuted Karin Love’s sentence from
death row to life in prison. And I think this is just what the church has been
waiting for.”