“Step on the gas, Kyle!Jayden is in there with those psychos!” I screamed. God, less talk and moredriving to save my best friend.
Ryder turned and met mygaze. “Did you not listen to what I just said. The Sanctum won’t be seen unlessthey want to, won’t be heard unless they want to. They want us to know they’rethere. They’re waiting for you to do something stupid like run straight intotheir trap. You’re not going back. I won’t risk you.”
I had to keep myself fromfull on freaking out on everyone in this car. No way in hell was I leaving Jayden.“I don’t care. My best friend is still stuck in there and I am going back.”
All six of the big, scary-assmen groaned then. What? Surely they hadn’t expected I would do this the easyway.
“We should just knock herout and stash her somewhere so we can deal with this.”
I almost fell over as Irealized that that had come from Sam. He had finally decided to talk, his voicelow and gravely, with a faint accent. Russian or something.
“Seriously?” I threw myhands up as frustration rocked me. “You never speak, and the first time you do,it’s to tell everyone to knock me out. If any of you boneheads lay a singlefinger on me I am going to make you pay. Every single one of you will have hairremover in your shampoo, and wax strips stuck to your ass.” I jabbed a fingerat Markus. “Even you, pretty boy man-bun. You will take me with you now, andtogether we will save Jayden and our Hive.”
Some of the tension leftthe car then. Jared’s eyes were flat-out laughing as he locked in on me, hisblond curls messy as he ran a hand through them. “She’s got us there, mates, Icertainly don’t want no hair grabber stuck on my arse.”
Ryder got very close tome then, his eyes boring into mine, his scent enveloping me and pretty muchknocking me over. “You will stay with me the entire time, Charlie. If you can’tpromise that, I won’t take you back. We go in there knowing that they plan ontaking or killing you. You have to understand this before you agree.”
I swallowed, trying toremember how to speak. What was my name again? I had to blink a few times toclear my hazy thoughts. “I promise to stay close to one of the enforcers, butyou also have to promise me that we will make Jayden a priority. He is myfamily.”
Ryder and I remainedeye-locked for some endless moments, his eyes dropping for a second to stare atmy lips. I wondered if he was remembering our kiss too. Finally he gave me ahead nod and I knew it was settled.
Kyle threw me a grin. “We’rewith you all the way. Your family is our family, Charlie. You should know thatby now.”
That gave me all the warmfeels. It had always been just me, my mom, and Tessa. But now my family was somuch larger. Maybe becoming an ash wasn’t the curse I had always believed.Maybe it was so much more.
It was pitch black by the time we reachedthe outer limits of Portland. The drive had been silent. Ryder had downed a fewbottles of blood before crashing out and sleeping most of the way.
“How did he managed tofight off a group of ash enforcers?” I finally asked Kyle as the familiaroutskirts came into view. “And one of these Sanctum mercenaries. Is he a normalash?”
I heard more than onesnort from the crew around me, and I guess that was a pretty stupid thing tosay. We all knew Ryder was beyond a normal ash by a million, but why? Was itjust because he was so close to an Original? I mean, why was he so kickass andawesome and I was just … me? I was directly sired by an Original … or something.It was so confusing, because my results said I wasn’t really an ash. I probablysucked as an Original descendant because I was not one at all. The blood workwas inconclusive, which basically meant they didn’t have a fucking clue what Iwas.
Ryder answered my earlierquestion. “I had more than a little motivation.” He shifted in his seat, stretchingout a little, waking up. “They mentioned that you were the target, offered methe bribe, and I kind of lost it.”
“What happened to therest of them?” Oliver asked. His tanned skin was looking even darker thanusual.
“Dead,” Ryder said, histone flat.
I actually shivered then,and it was in that moment I realized that Ryder was really scary. I mean, I’dalways known he was scary, but I’d never felt the force of that emotion aroundhim before.
The CB radio blared tolife: “Core Enforcer team, come in! What’s your status? We have been infiltratedby suspected rival Hive. Although no one is in sight. Quorum is going intolockdown.”
The enforcers exchanged aglance, but none of them picked up the radio. They believed that not only wasthere a mercenary group hired to find me, but a traitor in our Hive. They wouldnot give any heads-up at this stage.
Kyle spoke this time.“The Sanctum are very good at making Hives think they are under attack fromcountless assailants. They are fast, deadly, and kill quickly.”
My eyes darted around asI tried to take in both of the males in the front. “So we don’t know if theattack is just the Sanctum, or if there is another Hive involved as well?” Allthis double-talk was confusing.
Ryder’s lips curled up alittle. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, our goals remain the same – rescue Jayden,get him and Charlie to safety, and then go back for the Quorum. That’s theorder of business.”
I saw more than one headnod, and I was okay with that. I wasn’t going to be much use against elitemercenaries. The gates of the Hive came into view and we were all distracted.Driving in at night like this always gave me the creeps. It reminded me of thatnight a year ago – when everything changed.
Remembering was easiernow, although it still churned my stomach and sat bile at the base of mythroat. I’d been out partying with Tessa, and we’d been separated on thestreet. Before I knew what had happened, I was grabbed by two ash. One of thempunched me in the face, and by the time I managed to pull myself together I wasin behind the security fence.
They were like rabiddogs, pawing at me, trying to tear my clothes away, and I had been helpless,unable to fight, unable to even scream for help as one of them had his handfirmly clamped over my mouth.
I cut off the thoughts. Ididn’t dwell on that night. I’d been saved. The two ash had been yanked off meby some guy, who then ripped their heads right from their shoulders. I didn’tknow who had saved me, I only got brief glimpses of him, but he sort ofreminded me of a blond Viking, with braids and feathers and shit in his hair.Probably I’d imagined that part or something, because I’d never seen a singlemember of the Hive who came close to his description.
My biggest regret wasthat I hadn’t stuck around and thanked him. All I’d thought of was escape. Idragged myself out of the compound and called my mom to get me. I’d been beatup, scratched, bruised, and bloodied. But I had not been raped or fed on, and Icounted myself lucky. Other human women were not usually so lucky when it cameto the ash.
