I dropped back against the seat. So many things could go wrong with this plan. So many. It was widespread, and had people all over the place involved. Just one slip-up and everything would fall to shit. Unease began to gnaw at my belly. Maybe we had done this ass backwards. The humans were key to our plan. Maybe we should have told them first? Now they were gunning for me in hopes of getting the cure, but completely ignorant to the fact that we were already working on it. I ran my hand through my freshly shorn hair. Fuck, I really hoped I survived this. Ryder’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror as if he’d heard that thought. They burned with intensity and I knew that if I died, Ryder would die too, because he wasn’t going to let anything happen to me while he was still breathing and on this Earth. That thought should have comforted me, but it only served to make me sink deeper into depression.
It was roughly a six-and-a-half-hour drive to Boise, Idaho, but we had to stop a few times to stash me in the trunk because there were border checks that were uncharacteristic to this part of the country. Thankfully, they weren’t at a level yet to actually open trunks or look inside of luggage, but even the fact they were stopping vehicles was a little scary. Once we finally passed through the last check, Ryder pulled over and let me out.
“I don’t like it. They’re looking for you everywhere already,” he said, as he ushered me into the back seat and then took his place at the wheel.
Even with my gothic getup, we weren’t risking it with cops. Better just to have two guys in the car; they were clearly on the lookout for a woman. It was lucky, too, that the boys had their contacts in and glasses on. All ash were going to be treated as suspicious.
Kyle was frowning. “Let’s turn on the radio. Maybe something has changed.”
He fiddled with a few knobs. After finding a news station, we sat with rapt attention as Ryder crept back out onto the road. A nasally male voice came through the speaker mid-sentence: “—bring families back together. This could change the way we live our lives forever. If there’s a cure, there’s no fear of getting the virus. There would be a way to bring back our family members that have been affected. But we need that girl. Tests need to be done. It’s going to take time to figure out exactly how to replicate the curative components of her blood. We also need to meet with the leaders of the Hives to talk about how to administer the cures.”
I snorted. “HAH! They’re delusional. The humans actually think the vampires will voluntarily take the cure?”
The radio announcer continued with his nasally speech: “Multiple ash equality and rights groups have sprung up, arguing that the girl should be able to choose if she wants to offer the cure willingly.”
“Thank you!” I said loudly from the backseat.
“But even more privately funded groups have come forward offering millions, and in one case, over a billion dollars, for the girl’s capture—”
The announcer’s voice cut off as Ryder smashed the power button, leaving us all to sit in an uncomfortable silence. Fuck. A billion dollars for my “capture.” I shrank into the seat, staring at the open road ahead of us. This was an epic Charlie screw up. Now I was running from a billion-dollar manhunt. People go crazy and kill for fifty bucks nowadays. I couldn’t imagine what they were going to do for that sort of paycheck.
I stretched myself out onto the back seat so that I was lying fully prone. Depression settled into my bones as I realized I most likely wouldn’t make it out of this alive. That was the last thought I had before I dozed off.
I awoke to muffled talking; the back window was rolled down a few inches and my heart lifted at the sound of my Australian enforcer’s deep baritones.
“Is Charlie in the trunk? Who’s the hooker?” I tilted my head back to see Jared gesturing to me sprawled out in the back seat. My skirt had lifted, showing my fishnet covered ass. I popped my head up and glared at him.
“Who you calling a hooker, jackass?” I shot back, and Jared looked shocked.
“Holy shit, Charlie. I didn’t recognize you.”
I just grinned, flinging the door open and flying into his outstretched arms. Sam, Markus, and Oliver were all here too. I gave them each a big, long hug. We were together again; we were going to finish this. I hadn’t forgotten my last morose realization of my impending death, but for some reason, back with my boys I was confident again.
I saw now that the car had been pulled out into a thick cornfield and we were completely hidden from view. My eyes lingered on each of the enforcers, their familiar faces so precious to me. I couldn’t believe it had only been a couple months that I had known these guys. We had been through hell and back together, and now we were going to end this. Sam was giving me a look I couldn’t interpret. The man with a thousand plans, the man who was always calculating, always planning the next step.
“The disguise is good, but not good enough,” he finally commented.
Ryder clapped him on the back. “I know what you’re thinking, brother, but she deserves to see this through.”
My eyes narrowed at Sam. “I don’t know what he’s thinking! Tell me, Sam, what are you thinking?”
He pulled a syringe out of his pocket. “AT20 you and stash you with a friend until this is over.”
I stiffened. Fucking Sam. Always trying to knock me out and hide me! The only reason I wasn’t pulling my gun out now and shooting him in the knee was that I knew he suggested it because he loved me; he wanted to make sure he saw my face next week. I approached him.
“Sam…” I placed both of my hands on his shoulders and met his gaze. “I used to jog the streets of Portland, go to Starbucks, and laugh with Tessa on the campus lawn. My only problem was what to wear to the club that night.” My face hardened. “They took that from me. They forever changed who I am. They made me a murderer. They forced me to kill, to fight for my life when I could have just been left to live out my days in peace with my mother and Tessa. Ash aren’t contagious. The vampires have designed this entire Hive world to benefit them, with ash as their slaves! Well, enough is enough! We’ve suffered enough.”
He surprised me with a hug. “Okay, Charlie.” He stashed the AT20 back in his pocket.
I turned to see Ryder looking at me with blazing silver eyes. “Ready?” he asked, and reached out to hold my hand.
I nodded. “Ready.”
We were split into three groups. Ryder, Kyle and I. Sam with Markus. Oliver with Jared. California was the bigger of the blood distributors, so two trucks were going there. I followed the boys through the cornfields and out onto a two lane highway. Three huge semi-trucks with hazards on were pulled off the side of the road. They all bore the same red, yellow, and blue logo that I recognized from visiting my mother at the hospital. The Cellway distributors. Ryder, Kyle, and I got in the red truck. Sam gave Ryder the keys, with a few instructions on how to handle the rig. Apparently they’d all learned to drive trucks many years ago, but Ryder was a little rusty.
“You guys head on over to the Texas blood receiving station.” Sam said finally. “It’s on the outskirts of Dallas. They ship out to the east coast and it will be less likely that anyone will recognize Charlie. We’ll head to Cali and drop our shipments there. If all goes well, meet back up in Portland at the lake house. If shit hits the fan, hide.”
Ryder nodded and they bro-hugged and that was it. We were in a massive rig packed full of hundreds of thousands of specialty bottles, all filled with the cure for vampirism. Now we just needed to get it to the Sanctum dudes already in place in the hospitals, then it was done. Easy-peasy, right? What could go wrong?
