Obsidian Wings Read Free Page B

appearance more often,” Jack said, staring after the
departing birds.
    “Rice has this covered,” Rune said. “Let’s go find the
twins.” She didn’t look at Strad.
    She felt him though, walking like a big silent cat behind
her. She walked faster.
    Once in her car she slammed the door shut and pulled out her
phone to report to Rice. Not that she had much to report.
    As she talked, she watched the berserker in her rearview
mirror. He took his spear from its sheath on his back, then placed it carefully
into his truck.
    With long, unhurried steps, he walked relentlessly toward
her.
    “Fuck,” she said.
    “Rune?” asked Rice. “What is it?”
    “Nothing, Bill. If I get anything else, I’ll call.” She
clicked off and started her car. Before she could pull away, Strad opened the
passenger side door and climbed in.
    “Fuck,” she said again.
    Strad looked at her, one side of his mouth lifting in a
half-smile. “We should talk.”
    “No. We really shouldn’t.”
    “Rune—” His cell interrupted him. He cursed, then held it to
his ear. “Yeah.”
    She stared through her windshield at the slaughterhouse but
didn’t actually see it. She was jealous of the berserker—not just jealous, but
territorial.
    She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.
    He clicked off, opening his door as he stuffed the cell back
into his pocket. “Follow me.” He climbed from the SUV.
    “What is it?”
    He leaned down to peer at her through the open door. “One of
my sources. He saw Horner. Some members of COS are having a meeting right now.”
    She almost couldn’t grasp what he was telling her. “Where?”
    He smiled, and it sent chills down her spine. Chills of
fear. “In the Moor, sweetheart.”
    Right where Lex had said. She hadn’t been talking about the
twins. She’d been talking about their abductors.
    He slammed the door shut and jogged back to his truck.
    Her heart beat almost impossibly fast, hard enough to hurt
the barely healed stake wound. She put a hand to her chest as she sped away
from the slaughterhouse, tailing the berserker.
    Bach Horner was in their sights—and if they found Horner,
they’d find Levi and Denim.
     
     

Chapter
Five
    Strad turned left at Hook Road and then made a sharp right
into a part of the Moor Rune wasn’t very familiar with. The road she followed
him down was rutted and unused, surrounded by bare trees and dry ditches full
of rubble.
    The land was dotted with a few abandoned, rundown houses,
and she could see how COS might find the area an attractive hiding place.
    Strad led her through half a mile of swampland that could
have been a scene from a horror movie, even with the sun shining.
    Somewhere, maybe somewhere close, were the twins.
    But if they were—if COS had stashed the guys somewhere in
the godforsaken Moor—then they’d made huge error.
    Surely they’d known that eventually, Rune and the crew would
find them.
    Which scared her a little.
    They had a reason for staying in River County. That reason,
though, was a big fucking mystery.
    She nearly rear-ended Strad when he abruptly stopped his
truck. He got out and motioned for her to do the same.
    She left her SUV and eased a gun from its holster. “Where
are they?” She sniffed, catching a whiff of acrid smoke.
    And something else.
    “Blood,” she muttered.
    “This way.” He unholstered both his guns. With COS, a person
couldn’t take chances.
    In seconds she saw a thin, lazy line of smoke rising into
the air. “They’re meeting outdoors around a fucking bonfire?”
    But no one was there.
    Evidence of their grim party remained in the recently
smothered fire, fresh footprints, and litter.
    A crudely constructed, bloody altar straddled the embers.
“Oh hell,” she whispered. Singed ropes lay in the ashes, and as she bent
forward to retrieve them, her fingers brushed the hardness of something lying
beneath them.
    She scooped it up, showing it to Strad even as she fought
not to let it drop back to the