Rune closed her eyes for a long moment. “Berserker. Let’s take a walk.”
“What’s the plan?” Strad waited until they were out of earshot of Lex before he spoke, but still kept his voice quiet. “Lex told me it won’t be long before her mother overwhelms her.”
“I know.” She sighed. “I brought back a jar that an old lady put a spell on. Abby will try her best, but I don’t know how easy it will be to fool Karin.”
“She’s getting desperate.”
“Yeah. All we can do is try it and hope it works. Because if it doesn’t…”
“What?”
She didn’t want to tell him. Didn’t even want to say aloud the words that would mean she was exactly like Damascus, that she, too, was full of evil. That she could eat fucking souls.
“Don’t ask,” she said, finally. “I’ll do what I have to do.”
He studied her, devouring her face with his vivid blue gaze. “You always do. But I won’t let you do something that’s going to hurt you.”
“Berserker, you know you can’t stop me.”
He crossed his arms, frustration in every line of his hard body. “Damn you, Rune.”
She grinned. “Did you miss me?”
“Always.” His voice was hoarse and the truth was there in his hot blue eyes.
“My father loves you, Rune Alexander. Not your blood.”
She took a deep breath. “Let’s go back.”
Lex would be deprived the pleasure of killing the monster, but Rune was pretty sure that by then, she’d be happy just being rid of the bitch.
Someday, when they figured something else out, Lex would have her moment. Someday.
“But today is not that day,” Rune murmured.
“Rune—”
But she squared her shoulders and interrupted him. “No, Berserker. There’s work to be done. Let’s go take care of Karin Love and move on to the witch.”
She almost laughed, because those tasks seemed impossible.
Inconceivable.
The same moment they turned to walk back, Lex yelled in surprised shock and pulled her weapons.
“The witch,” Rune screamed.
Strad roared and yanked free his spear.
Together, they sprinted toward Lex.
“Get away from her,” Rune screamed, and threw her blade as Abby, in her guise as the witch, grabbed Lex.
Lex wasn’t just up against the fake witch—she was also battling her mother, who, thinking Damascus had arrived, fought even harder to come to the surface of Lex’s consciousness.
Rune’s blade stuck in the back side of Abby’s arm, but the woman ignored it.
“Come closer and she’s dead,” Abby said, her voice dark, tight, and totally believable.
It was at that second that Rune realized that she’d taken too big a risk. She didn’t know Wicked Abby.
And she’d nearly forgotten Abby’s power.
Lex hung in Abby’s grip, her eyes dull, her lips parted.
Abby watched Rune and Strad as she held Lex with one hand and pulled Rune’s blade free with the other.
She licked the blood from it, grinning.
“There’s really nothing better than my own blood,” she said, and then leaned close to Lex’s lax face. “Tell me, little one, do you want to feel pleasure, or do you want to feel pain? Hmmm? Maybe you’d like a little of both.”
Lex’s body stiffened and she moaned, her voice oily and slick with pleasure.
But in the very next second she shrieked in agony.
“Fuck you,” Rune screamed, and ignoring Abby’s threat and her own lack of weapons, ran straight for them.
“Rune,” Strad yelled. “She’ll kill her.”
Abby jerked Lex to her with only seconds to spare before Rune, minus her monster, reached the two.
And before Rune could attack the woman, Strad grabbed Rune and wrapped his arms around her, his hold too strong for her to break.
Rune howled.
“Rune,” he hissed. “Look.”
Abby had let go of Lex, who had fallen to the ground and watched Abby battle Karin Love to keep her—or so Lex would have thought—from possessing her body.
And finally, as Rune’s heart beat so hard it hurt, Abby’s body relaxed. She shook her hair from her face and grinned.
Her smile stretched across her face, tight and mad. “I got the bitch.”
Lex screamed.
“Lex—” Rune started.
But Lex was beyond hearing. Her mother stood right in front of her, grinning, and she believed Karin had managed to take over the witch.
Lex wanted to kill Karin Love. She needed to.
She’d buried her blades in Abby’s chest before either Rune or the berserker could stop her. She yanked them free and stabbed Abby again, and again, before Strad could force her away.
“Shit.” Rune dropped to her knees beside Abby. “Abby…”