“Help!” I screamed again,hoping like hell someone would hear me this time. I felt the graze of razorsharp points on my neck, and I knew he was just about to pierce my skin.Pleasure chased along my spine, my body remembering how it felt to be fed on,but it was quickly doused with how awful this situation was. Vamp asshole thendecided to take his time with me, slowly pushing his chompers into me. His wetmouth sucked at my neck with greed. Gross. Vampire hickey. Just what I needed.I kneed him firmly in the groin, but he just bit down on me harder.
“Got off, asshole!” Iscreamed, but it was no use. He was like a two-hundred-pound mosquito.
Suddenly Ryder’s andKyle’s faces zoomed into focus, and before the relief even had time to hit, theenforcers had grabbed the vamp by the neck, ripping him off of me. The vampwent airborne and was slammed onto the ground. Kyle reached over and yanked meup, holding me against his hard frame as one of his hands lifted to restagainst the side of my neck. Both of us froze as we watched Ryder go completelyinto warrior mode, throwing a series of powerful blows to the vamp’s head, hisarms moving so fast I couldn’t track them. Holy shit, he was a monster. Theforce at which the punches connected with the vamp’s face made sounds that Iwas pretty sure would haunt my dreams. It was in this moment I truly realizedhow easy Ryder had been going on me in training. I had not even the slightestclue of his true abilities.
Kyle held me close untilmy shaking stopped. “You okay, Charlie?” His dark eyes lifted from Ryder tolock on me. “Shit, sorry girl, we got here as soon as we heard you scream.”
I tried to swallow, someof the pain in my neck easing. Kyle lifted his hand away and his eyes swirledas he stared. “The wound has closed over. You’re going to need some blood.”
He pulled himself awayfrom me and I realized that my blood was tempting him. I propped myself againstthe wall as Kyle strode across to help Ryder. Markus, Jared, and Sam ran downthe hall then, and together the enforcers helped Kyle pull Ryder off theunconscious vamp. I remained against the wall, too shaken to move yet, my focuslocked in on the one man who always had my back. Ryder’s eyes were wild, hisknuckles already bruised, cuts littering them. He left the vampire to his men,crossing the space to crowd into me.
“Are you hurt?” His wordswere barely audible, so much feral in his gaze.
Hurt? Oh right, I wasattacked.
My hand went up to myneck, even though Kyle had told me it was healed. “He bit me.”
Ryder breathed deeply,his serious eyes never leaving me. He didn’t seem drunk anymore, the fighthaving washed away whatever buzz he’d had.
Finally, he turned backto his guys, even though he did not shift out of my personal space. He spoke ina low voice to the enforcers, and I used the time to move off the wall. Mylimbs were shaking a little, the adrenalin starting to wear off. Why were thesebastards always trying to bite me? It didn’t seem normal.
Ryder turned back around,and finding me moved, stepped back into my personal space. “If he were an ash,I would kill him right here.” His hazy silver and black eyes flickered to thelump on the floor.
Kyle nodded. He’d movedclose to Ryder’s back. “I think we should kill him anyways. Who cares what theQuorum says.”
Ryder seemed to considerthis, then he grinned, catching me totally off guard. “No, I have a betteridea. Throw him in the pit for a month.”
Jared let out a lowwhistle. “A month in the pit. Dude is going to be fried.” Damn that accent was good.I needed to visit Australia one day. Also, note to self: Don’t get on Ryder’sbad side and find out what the hell the pit was.
Ryder placed a hand on mylower back. “Fun’s over. Let’s go.”
I got the distinctfeeling he would not be letting me out again soon. “I wouldn’t consider beingattacked by a vampire fun,” I retorted.
He frowned. “Yeah, badjoke. Sorry.” He stopped and faced me. “Seriously, are you okay?” His hair wastousled from the fight, and the protective way his hand rested against my spinehad my stomach all aflutter.
No.
“I’m fine,” I said.
This was not Ryder’sproblem. I was the delicious, chocolate-covered unicorn donut, and while I’dlove it if Ryder were my own delicious chocolate-covered donut, the feelingclearly wasn’t mutual.
I turned and left thehallway with Ryder hot on my heels. The night of fun was over, and we wereheading back to the Hive. Back to the world of blood and vamps. If I didn’tfigure this out soon, how to stop all of this blood-lusting after me, I wasn’tgoing to survive long past the culling anyways.
The next day I awoke to a loud banging onmy door. This wasn’t a friendly, just-stopping-by knock. It was a police-raid I’m-going-to-Taser-your-ass,bang-bang-bang sort of knock. I leapt off the bed, heart hammering and crossedthe hallway as Jayden flew out of his room, eyes wide.
“What the hell?” Jaydenlooked half dead. Ryder and Kyle might have brought me home early from the club,but Jayden and Tessa had stayed out with their men.
“Open the damn door!”
It was Ryder.
I flung the door open andhe stepped inside and slammed it behind him.
“The Quorum is on theirway.” His words were short and sharp. “They want another blood test after theculling and what happened at the club. They don’t trust Lucas.”
My eyes went wide andJayden looked confused. I hadn’t told him about the direct descendent thing.Not because I didn’t trust him, but because there wasn’t really anything tosay. No one knew what I was, they just knew I wasn’t normal.
“What do I do?”
