Jayden’s muscular armstrembled as he launched himself at Oliver. “Yes, he had god awful taste in musicand his breath reeked. It was awful.”
This was why we were bestfriends – we both had terrible comedic timing.
Still, it worked to breakthe tension. Even Oliver’s expression lightened. Ahhh Jayden, the world wouldtruly be a dark place without you. I couldn’t stop myself then from steppinginto them, joining Oliver and Jayden for a group hug. Strong arms surroundedme, and I was so relieved to know that no one had been hurt badly today. Myfamily was safe for now. We had been lucky. But I hadn’t forgotten what Rydersaid. They’d be back, and soon. Would we be so lucky the next time?
Ryder stood apart fromus, his jaw rigid enough that he was looking quite statue-like. He was makingit very clear that he was in no mood to celebrate. His worries would not easetonight. In the depths of his silver eyes swirled a windstorm of emotions. Theworst, though, was the coldness there. This situation had done something to him… to us. I wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t feel good. I felt him going distantagain, putting up the walls.
Great. Looked like wewere back to the old days, treating me like no more than number forty-six inthe ash culling members.
Chapter 11
Ryder inserted the code into the alarmsystem, which halted the lights and blaring sirens. It took two of them –Markus and Kyle – to use fingerprint and retinal scanning before the Quorumsuites security gates were lifted. The elevators had been halted, and theentire Hive sectioned off during the breach. I was not surprised, but the levelof security in the building was impressive. Of course, now the mercenaries knewabout all of that – they had a general layout, they knew procedure – they wouldnot make the same mistakes next time.
I was sitting in thecontrol room, Markus stretched out on one side of me and Sam on the other. Thedark-haired enforcer had gone back to being silent and deadly, not speaking tome, but his presence was as comforting as Markus’, who chatted away in hisScottish tones.
“I just about lost mygrip when the car crashed into the building. It drew away the sniperimmediately. He dashed in to make sure if wasn’t his men. That gave Sam and Ienough time to get into position by the window.”
Turned out the sniper hadbeen in the window next to our apartment. He would have taken out the boys ifit wasn’t for the few distractions we had set up. Jayden had thought it wasawesome they had gotten to smash up the main level. Of course, that was beforeRyder sent him and Kyle back there to start repairing it, along with the restof the enforcer group. Even though there were only six in the core group, therewere dozens in the main enforcer team. Ten of their men had lost their lives,and I knew the Quorum was preparing the burial now. Ash didn’t get quite thesame sendoff as the vamps, but they still had a ceremony.
I had not seen Rydersince those moments in my apartment. He was everywhere at once, dealing witheverything, and—
“He’s calling in favors,you know.” Markus stopped randomly chatting, changing subjects to the one I wasmost interested in. “Ryder. Using his contacts to make sure the Sanctum don’tcome for you again, finding out who hired them for the job in the first place.”
I shook my head, my armsautomatically wrapping around myself as a comfort. “I don’t understand. I knowI’m unusual. I know I’m apparently descended directly from an Original, butbesides a little levitation one time, I’ve done nothing else. Why would they goto all of this trouble? Three million dollars is a lot of money. It doesn’tmake sense. What do they want from me?”
Sam shifted. He wasmonitoring some security footage, going back through the mercenaries’ initialentrance. His job was to try and figure out how the security was so easilybreached, how ten men were killed before the lockdown was initiated. His eyesflicked across to me once or twice, but he didn’t speculate with Markus and me.
The Scottish enforcerrested his massive feet on the desk, leaning back in his favorite position. “Idon’t know, lass, but whatever happens, we have your back. Ain’t no onestealing our unicorn on our watch.”
I wanted to punch andhug him at the same time. Our unicorn. They were so arrogant. But they were myfamily now, and I kind of like that they claimed me as theirs.
“I should check onJayden,” I mused, unwrapping my arms and placing them on the cool metal desk.“He was still shaken up, and I don’t want him to be alone stressing about howclose he came to dying.”
Sam stopped me as I gotto my feet; a single hand on my forearm did the trick. “Oliver is with him.”
That was all he said,before releasing me and going back to his footage. I had to shake my head a fewtimes. His intensity was a little disconcerting, but I was starting to see themany layers to the mostly silent enforcer.
A noise in the doorwayhad all three of us swinging about to find Lucas perched in the entrance, hiswhite trench coat billowing out around him. He looked tired. The last twelvehours had been stressful for everyone in the Hive.
“Can I talk with you,Charlene?” His voice was low, and sort of raspy.
I jumped up, and with alast wink for Markus, took off toward Lucas. I needed to talk with him too. Istill hadn’t asked him to step in with Tessa and Blake. I hoped nothing hadgone too far with those two yet. I had to save her.
Lucas and I walked sideby side through the hall, ending up on the cafeteria level, which was desertedat the moment, hundreds of bench seats spread out, letting us see the true sizeof the space. It kind of blew my mind to think that every mealtime these tableswere all full. The Hive really was too small for the growing number of ash.Each culling, fewer and fewer were going to be allowed to survive. In the nextfew years, being an ash would pretty much be a death sentence. Not for thevampires though – every single one of those assholes were welcome.
I pushed down mybitterness and focused on Lucas across from me. We were seated near theentrance, the space around us cool and quiet.
“I’m so glad you’reokay.” He reached out and took my hand, his grip comforting. “I was very angryabout being locked in with the Quorum, especially when my people and you wereout there unprotected. But when a head of a house dies, the entire line isweakened. It happens time to time but not a lot. It is to be avoided at allcosts, so they always lock us in the secure chambers during conflict.”
I returned his squeeze.“All good, Lucas. We weren’t even here when the initial infiltration happened.”I told him bits and pieces about our theories – why the Sanctum had been hired,how they’d tried to take out Ryder first. I kept a lot of information secretthough. There was a mole somewhere in this Hive. I trusted Lucas mostly, but itnever hurt to be a little cautious, even if he had done nothing but keep mealive.
“I will organize a securitydetail for you also,” he bit out at the end of my story. “I know Ryder will beon top of it, but I have to do whatever I can to keep you safe.”
I started to shake myhead. I didn’t want a security detail, I didn’t want to be followed and watchedevery second of the day. It was bad enough being stuck in here, and I wanted tobe able to go back to college soon. I couldn’t let them stop me.
I quickly changed thesubject to Tessa, hoping Lucas would forget about his plans to sic his guardson me. “You have to do something to stop it, she’s not thinking straight.” Igot louder and angrier with each sentence. “Blake has her all wrapped up inlove, and she misses me. She would do anything so we can live together and bein the same world again.”
Tessa was lonely. Herfamily was rich but not really warm or caring. She always preferred my mom andspent a lot of her younger years in our house.
