Kyle swallowed. “Thehumans can press charges against the ash. They will fine the Hive a shit-ton ofmoney, and the ash that killed her will never forgive himself.”
Shit. Suddenly I thoughtof Ryder. He hadn’t forgiven himself yet, had he? Now wasn’t the time to askand I was sure best friend code kept Kyle from telling me.
The van screeched aroundanother corner and turned onto Monroe Street. We were at the right street now.This was where the woman lived.
As we ground to a halt infront of a sprawling, ranch-style house, Kyle swung around to face me. “Youhaven’t been trained, so let me take the lead. Newly turned ash are jacked upfrom the change and are super strong. They also have an unquenchable thirst. Ifhe bites me, kill him. He will not hesitate to kill me, and then he will moveon to you.”
Holy shit balls. I feltmy palms sweating, and was suddenly a tiny bit grateful for the culling. Atleast I had some experience fighting.
“Was I that strong?” Iasked.
“You were the strongestcall Ryder and I have ever taken.”
Well, damn. Kyle openedhis door and hit the ground running. I did the same, following him right up tothe door. Two hard kicks and it was down. One day I was totes going to learnhow to kick down a door.
“Ash enforcers! Lay downwith your hands behind your head,” Kyle yelled, and I finally noticed that hehad two bottles of blood in his hand, and what looked like a couple more in hispockets. When the hell had he grabbed those?
I stepped out from behindKyle’s broad shoulders and saw a young man with dark hair leaning over a limp,pale woman. The male stopped feeding on her; his face shot up and he started togrowl. Kyle pulled his weapon and I followed suit, figuring he had a muchbetter chance of knowing what the hell to do.
Kyle flicked open one ofthe bottle lids. “Want some nice blood?” He slowly bent and set the bottle onthe ground, about three feet from the ash.
The young man’s chest washeaving, eyes black as night, with the slightest silver ring. He ignored Kyle’soffer and leaned back down to bite his mother. The second he clamped down, Isaw her fingers twitch. No! She was still alive. I acted on instinct, firing ashot into the guy’s back. He snapped his head up and looked at me.
“Shit, Charlie,” Kylesaid calmly. “Don’t poke the lion while he’s feeding.”
My eyes widened as I gotwhat he was saying. Too late. The guy stood, dropping his limp mother andlurching up, smashing aside furniture to get to me.
“Don’tkill him!” I shouted at Kyle. Something inside of me felt bad for him. Itwasn’t his fault. This was me a few months ago. He came at me like a zombie,arms out, fangs distended.
I jumped up and did aroundhouse kick to his temple, but he caught my leg midair, and an instant laterI heard a loud snap.
Son of a bitch…
I let out a strangledscream and shot him again, this time in the gut, mostly to stop him fromripping my leg off. The guy folded over on himself, clutching his stomach, andI used this opportunity to bring the butt of the gun down on the back of hishead. Kyle was right there to pin him down and wrestle reinforced steel zipties onto his hands. Which was great because I was in a world of pain, andabout to be completely useless. I favored my good leg while waiting for Kyle tofinish securing the ash. All the while I was trying not to cry.
Kyle stood then, and Icould see the new ash was out cold. The enforcer appraised me. “I’m kind ofimpressed, although Ryder is going to kill my ass for letting you get injured.”
I tried to smile. It feltmore like a grimace. “What do we do now?” I asked, hoping like hell we wereheading back to the Hive. I needed blood, and rest, and more blood. Andpossibly a good hour with Jayden to cry about how people kept breaking me.
“The others are almosthere.”
When he said others Iknew it was members of the sexy six. This core group of enforcers were thebadasses of the ash and vampire world. They stepped in when no one else wouldtake the job. And since Ryder trusted all of them, I was also starting to thinkof them as part of my people.
Kyle left me then toattend to the boy’s mother. She was very still and pale, and I wondered if wewere too late. Kyle’s dirty blond hair shone in the half light as he leanedover her, feeling for a pulse and shifting her into a better position. “She’sstill alive, her pulse is steady,” he said, lifting his head so I could see thevery dark of his eyes. “The human doctors will take care of her. She’s going tobe fine – just a little blood loss.”
I sank against the wall, whichwas currently holding me up. “That’s great!” From the first moment I heardthose screams on the phone, I’d feared we were going to be too late. Seems we’dmade it just on time.
Noise drew my attentionthen, starting low and increasing as more than one set of heavy boots clompedoutside the single-story house. The front door Kyle had slammed into when we’dfirst entered had been leaning into the doorframe, and now slid to the side toreveal Markus, Jared, Sam, and Oliver. As usual when they were all together,the room shrank in from all the tall, beautiful, and deadly they were throwingaround. Oliver noticed me first and broke ranks to come and assess my leg.
I winced as he tried flexmy ankle. “Ow!”
He shook his head. “Whathappened? Ryder will want a full report when he gets back from paying hisrespects.”
I frowned. Paying hisrespects? What was he talking about?
Kyle glared at Oliver. “Shetook a call. It was an emergency and I needed backup. I didn’t think she wouldroundhouse kick a newly-turned ash in the face.”
The other four guyswhistled low and appraised me with pride. Markus’ deep brogue drifted acrossthe room. “No shit? Our unicorn is kind of a badass.”
