Kyle banged on the door hard. “Ryder!” he shouted.
Since he was more than a little occupied in his pissed-off-ness, I kept an eye on our surroundings. There were no humans around; the neighborhood was almost too quiet for this time in the afternoon.
Unease filtered through me, and I took a step close to Kyle. This could be a trap; we didn’t know Ryder was here, just that his phone was. There were footsteps and then the door opened.
It was Ryder, standing there wide-eyed in black fatigues, looking hot as fuck and pissed as hell.
He was pissed? Oh no, buddy, not happening. I stepped right up into his personal space.
“That’s right. Operation Tie Charlie Up in the Basement With the Vampires failed!” Moving even closer, he backed into the doorway and I poked him in the chest. “We’re a team, dude! You don’t leave me behind EVER again or the only ass you’ll be sleeping next to will be Kyle’s.”
His lips quirked the tiniest bit. “You cut your hair,” he said softly.
Oh … yeah. I had forgotten about that.
Looking behind Ryder, I noticed we had an audience. A mishmash of a dozen Sanctum and a few of what looked like a human SWAT team. I recognized Lincoln immediately. Old Blue Eyes was in his element, surrounded by a wall filled with pin-ups of dozens of maps and pictures.
“Welcome to my home, come right in,” Lincoln said with heavy sarcasm. We stepped into the house and closed the door.
Ryder met Kyle’s eyes and it was a total staredown. Finally, Kyle spoke under his breath: “I understand leaving Charlie, but why me?”
Ryder looked vulnerable, his eyes shuttering as he fought for composure. “No one else gets hurt.”
Kyle chuckled. “Aren’t you a fucking hero.”
Ryder clenched his jaw. “I didn’t—”
Lincoln groaned, cutting Ryder off. “We don’t have time for this! Either get in on the op or get out of my house.”
Kyle brushed past Ryder and took his place with the rest of the men. Ouch. I was beginning to feel bad for Ryder now. Maybe we were being a bit hard on him; it was clear he only wanted to make sure none of us got hurt. But dammit I didn’t want him hurt either. He’d put me throughhell over the past twenty-four hours, and all because he thought he was the hero and could do this all alone.
Before I could decide what to do, Ryder’s hand slipped in mine and he pulled me over to join the group. After scanning the faces of the newcomers, my eyes stopped on a tall redhead chick with huge amber eyes. She was completely sleeved with tats, gave off a don’t mess with me vibe, and if I was being honest she was hot AF. She was a human, so she must have been with Lincoln’s crew. Kyle had noticed her too and his eyes were definitely lingering on her.
Lincoln cleared his throat and we all looked up. “Ryder gave us intel late last night. I’ve been in briefings ever since and have had about zero hours of sleep, so don’t fuck with me.” A few of the Sanctum douches shifted in their seat, but strangely enough no one questioned Lincoln taking the lead. The SWAT leader continued: “Our orders are to help Ryder release one human girl, a Tessa Grace McNair from a place known as the pit, where she is being held in captivity.” He held up a photo of her from about two years ago, which I was pretty sure I took. How the hell did Ryder get his hands on that?
And … did Lincoln just say Tessa was human? I shifted on the spot, and Ryder squeezed my hand. Meeting his eyes, he gave the smallest shake of his head.
Holy hot damn. He’d lied. He lied to save my best friend and get him in the door so he could kill Fugly. It was brilliant and stupid all at the same time.
Lincoln was still in the midst of his update. The looks on the SWAT team’s faces were menacing. “It’s a direct federal violation to keep a human feeder against their will.” Then Blue Eyes gestured to the Sanctum and Ryder: “These ash enforcers have agreed to go in on the job with us, since they know the inner terrain better than anyone.”
My eyes cut across to Ryder again. My my, he’d been a busy guy, lying all over the place. Lincoln was going to kill him when he found out. I also found it quite offensive to have the Sanctum linked with my enforcers. They were nothing like the enforcers and never would be. But for now I’d play along.
Lincoln walked over to some high-powered rifles. “We’ve got some AT20, but that doesn’t last long in a full-fledged vampire. If they’re hostile, our orders are shoot to kill.”
Ryder cleared his throat. “And by shoot to kill he means cut their heads off, burn them alive, or completely pulverize them.”
I grimaced. Jesus. In the back of my mind I knew Ryder was doing this now because once Becca got the cure in everyone, they’d all return to cuddly oxytocin teddy bears and it would be hard to hate them. Ryder wanted Fugly to have his reckoning and I agreed. Even with oxytocin, something told me Fugly would always be evil.
Kyle remained stony-faced, even as the others in the room got to their feet and started to gear up. Kyle and I hadn’t come with much. I was already wearing my black fatigues, so I wasted no more time in strapping on a few knives and finding myself a rifle.
“If I asked you to stay behind, would you?” Ryder’s voice was soft and made my heart clench. He’d done absolutely everything he could to keep me out of this and we’d showed up anyway. But he couldn’t bubble wrap me, that wasn’t the girl he fell in love with. If I had to accept Ryder as he was, then I deserved the same. Plus, I would never leave my best friend in there.
I shook my head. “No.”
Ryder made me look into his eyes. “What if I begged?” His hands went through my freshly chopped locks.
I tried my best to harden my resolve. He was doing that thing where he completely disarmed me. “Becca has the cure now, so if I die it won’t matter.”
