Shiv Crew by Laken Cane Read Free Book Online Page B

children. That caused a lot of resentment—especially with the
wolves, who hated the vampires anyway.
    Because of that, chances were none
of the Others would attack the humans when they discovered that they were there
to purge the vampires.
    Too bad for the vampires.
    “How do we reach them?” Z asked.
    Rune shrugged. “He didn’t say. Just
that they’re under the church.”
    “Tear that bastard down brick by
brick,” Sherry shouted. “Let me at the mother—”
    “Shut up, Sherry,” Rune said, her
voice mild but her eyes narrow. She got tired fast of hearing bullshit from the
bald lady.
    Sherry shut up.
    Satisfied, Rune looked at Jack.
“You and the twins go inside and see if there’s a way down. Try to radio me if
you find anything.” Cell phones didn’t work inside Wormwood, and the radios
were hit and miss. Usually miss. “Z, Sherry, and I will take the back. Raze,
take the sides.” She hesitated. “Do you want one of the twins?”
    Raze snorted. “No.”
    Truthfully, he wouldn’t need a
second man with him. He was Raze, after all.
    Jack opened his mouth. “I don’t—”
    “Jack, take the twins and go. Raze
is going to end up around back with us anyway.”
    Men were such prideful creatures.
    Z and Sherry followed her to the
back of the church. Before they were halfway there an Other stepped from the
shadows of the pines.
    Sherry pulled her gun and dropped
to one knee, her eagerness to get a kill obvious.
    “Put the gun away,” Z said. “It’s
just Gunnar the Ghoul.”
    “Gunnar? The ghoul?” Sherry put her
gun away, looking like a kid whose candy had been stolen.
    “You haven’t met Gunnar?” Rune
asked. “Come then, I’ll introduce you.”
    “No thanks, ” Sherry replied.
She actually shuddered. She wanted to kill Others, not talk to them.
    Gunnar was the one Other Rune
actually enjoyed. Of course, if he hurt a human, she’d snap his spine, but he
amused her. And he was enamored of her.
    “Hello, Your Highness,” he said
when she stood in front of him. “Which beastly beasts are you after this lovely
evening?”
    “Vampires, baby.”
    He shuddered delicately, putting a
long-fingered hand to his mouth.
    She imagined that in another time
he might have been a good-looking man, but now he was just undead hideous. His
hair was black and stringy and fell into his hollow face without hiding a damn
thing. His thin body was long and bony.
    She never asked him where he got
his clothing—most likely off the corpses he had for supper—but he seemed fond
of fashion, putting together outfits that complemented his patchy complexion
and what he surely thought of as his tragic circumstances.
    Today he wore a long green jacket,
the ends of which trailed nearly to the backs of his knees in tattered tails.
He’d fastened a wide black belt around his middle, and wore dirty yellow
breeches that were three inches too short for him. His footwear consisted of faded
black boots covered with graveyard mud.
    “What do you have for me?” she
asked.
    “Well, now, Your Invaluableness,
that depends on what you have for Gunnar.”
    She rummaged around in one of her
pockets as he waited with clasped hands and an eager, hopeful smile.
    “Here you go, sexy,” she told him
and tossed him a king-size Baby Ruth candy bar.
    He caught it and held it to the
side of his face, rubbing his cheek over it as though it were a puppy. “Thank
you, Your Semipreciousness.”
    She folded her arms. “Talk to me,
Gunnar. The vampires are going to wake up on me. That wouldn’t be good.”
    “No, that wouldn’t be good,” he
agreed. He glanced behind her at Z and Sherry, causing Rune to throw a look
over her shoulder. Z appeared calm and slightly amused, but Sherry stared with
her mouth open and her eyes wide.
    Rune frowned at her. “I thought you
were a badass, Sherry. Are you scared of Gunnar?”
    Sherry shook her head. “No, I guess
you could say I’m more…stunned. I’ve never seen a ghoul. Not one like