Ash (23 page)

I flipped him off and his
grin widened further.

“Three mil,” Ryder said.

My mouth actually dropped
open. “Like … three million dollars? American dollars?”

Ryder gave a short nod of
confirmation. Well, what do you know. For that ridiculous amount of money I
should turn myself in.

The CB radio on the dash
blared to life and all of the men stopped their joking and focused.

“This is command. Bring
in all enforcers. The Hive has been infiltrated. I repeat, the Hive has been
infiltrated. ETA on a secure channel.” It was Jason’s voice, a guy I knew and
worked with. Sirens could be heard in the background.

My blood chilled.
“Jayden!” Oh shit. I’d left my best friend behind. Oliver made a noise then and
I spun around to lock him in my gaze. I knew I wasn’t the only one panicking
about this attack.

Ryder grabbed Kyle’s hand
mid-air as he was about to respond. “Five ash enforcers attacked me. Four of
them were regular, run of the mill, but the fifth one, the one who offered me
the money, had a fighting style I recognized. We were evenly matched, and before
I could hurt him too bad he got away.”

The two shared a look
that sent chills up my spine. “Don’t say it.” Kyle was looking as pale as
Markus right now. And the Scottish ash was definitely on the fair side.

Ryder didn’t hesitate. “I
think it’s the Sanctum.”

“The who?” I didn’t like
being out of the loop. The entire car clearly knew who they were. The
collective curses had told me more than enough. If they were worried, then I
had no doubt that the Sanctum was not to be effed with.

Ryder was silent for a
moment. “The Sanctum are an elite group of ash mercenaries. They offer
sanctuary to any ash who does not wish to live within the Hive. But there is a
price to pay. They have no morals, no loyalties, and no end goal. They are
highly trained killers who do what they do for money. Glorified hit men. I
think a price has been put on your head.”

The air whooshed out of
me. “How do you know all this?”

The entire car was
silent. Ryder looked out the car window as if reminiscing. His voice was
hollow. “Because I was recruited by them. I was lost for a few years after I
changed, and they offered me a way to focus through the pain. I trained and
worked with them on a few jobs until I realized we were killing innocents. Then
I left.”

Holy shit. That’s how
Ryder had become so deadly. Something told me that if these Sanctum had trained
Ryder, they were not people I wanted to meet.

“You’re sure it’s them?”
Kyle asked.

Ryder nodded. “I didn’t
recognize him, but his fighting style screamed Sanctum. He was there to see if
I was susceptible to turning, to join them again. And if that failed, to put me
out of commission before attacking the Hive. Should have sent two of them if
they wanted to make sure of that.”

I wanted to roll my eyes,
but he was really just stating a fact. They probably should have sent three.

Ryder continued: “I’m
going to say, judging on that call from the control room, they decided not to
wait and went looking for Charlie. Of course she’s not there, she’s here with
us, so they have made their presence known. They’re drawing her back.” 

A searing flood of panic
filled every part of my jittery brain. This was worse than I’d thought. Jayden
wasn’t just in the Hive while it was under attack, he was in there with highly
trained mercenaries, who were after me and probably knew he was my best friend
and roommate.

“Step on the gas, Kyle!
Jayden is in there with those psychos!” I screamed. God, less talk and more
driving to save my best friend.

Ryder turned and met my
gaze. “Did you not listen to what I just said. The Sanctum won’t be seen unless
they want to, won’t be heard unless they want to. They want us to know they’re
there. They’re waiting for you to do something stupid like run straight into
their trap. You’re not going back. I won’t risk you.”

I had to keep myself from
full 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-ass
men groaned then. What? Surely they hadn’t expected I would do this the easy
way.

“We should just knock her
out and stash her somewhere so we can deal with this.”

I almost fell over as I
realized that that had come from Sam. He had finally decided to talk, his voice
low and gravely, with a faint accent. Russian or something.

“Seriously?” I threw my
hands 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 single
finger on me I am going to make you pay. Every single one of you will have hair
remover in your shampoo, and wax strips stuck to your ass.” I jabbed a finger
at Markus. “Even you, pretty boy man-bun. You will take me with you now, and
together we will save Jayden and our Hive.”

Some of the tension left
the car then. Jared’s eyes were flat-out laughing as he locked in on me, his
blond curls messy as he ran a hand through them. “She’s got us there, mates, I
certainly don’t want no hair grabber stuck on my arse.”

Ryder got very close to
me then, his eyes boring into mine, his scent enveloping me and pretty much
knocking me over. “You will stay with me the entire time, Charlie. If you can’t
promise that, I won’t take you back. We go in there knowing that they plan on
taking or killing you. You have to understand this before you agree.”

I swallowed, trying to
remember how to speak. What was my name again? I had to blink a few times to
clear my hazy thoughts. “I promise to stay close to one of the enforcers, but
you also have to promise me that we will make Jayden a priority. He is my
family.”

Ryder and I remained
eye-locked for some endless moments, his eyes dropping for a second to stare at
my lips. I wondered if he was remembering our kiss too. Finally he gave me a
head nod and I knew it was settled.

Kyle threw me a grin. “We’re
with you all the way. Your family is our family, Charlie. You should know that
by now.”

That gave me all the warm
feels. It had always been just me, my mom, and Tessa. But now my family was so
much 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 reached
the outer limits of Portland. The drive had been silent. Ryder had downed a few
bottles of blood before crashing out and sleeping most of the way.

“How did he managed to
fight off a group of ash enforcers?” I finally asked Kyle as the familiar
outskirts came into view. “And one of these Sanctum mercenaries. Is he a normal
ash?”

I heard more than one
snort from the crew around me, and I guess that was a pretty stupid thing to
say. We all knew Ryder was beyond a normal ash by a million, but why? Was it
just because he was so close to an Original? I mean, why was he so kickass and
awesome 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 probably
sucked as an Original descendant because I was not one at all. The blood work
was inconclusive, which basically meant they didn’t have a fucking clue what I
was.

Ryder answered my earlier
question. “I had more than a little motivation.” He shifted in his seat, stretching
out a little, waking up. “They mentioned that you were the target, offered me
the bribe, and I kind of lost it.”

“What happened to the
rest of them?” Oliver asked. His tanned skin was looking even darker than
usual.

“Dead,” Ryder said, his
tone flat.

I actually shivered then,
and it was in that moment I realized that Ryder was really scary. I mean, I’d
always known he was scary, but I’d never felt the force of that emotion around
him before.

The CB radio blared to
life: “Core Enforcer team, come in! What’s your status? We have been infiltrated
by suspected rival Hive. Although no one is in sight. Quorum is going into
lockdown.”

The enforcers exchanged a
glance, but none of them picked up the radio. They believed that not only was
there a mercenary group hired to find me, but a traitor in our Hive. They would
not give any heads-up at this stage.

Kyle spoke this time.
“The Sanctum are very good at making Hives think they are under attack from
countless assailants. They are fast, deadly, and kill quickly.”

My eyes darted around as
I tried to take in both of the males in the front. “So we don’t know if the
attack is just the Sanctum, or if there is another Hive involved as well?” All
this double-talk was confusing.

Ryder’s lips curled up a
little. “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 the
order of business.”

I saw more than one head
nod, and I was okay with that. I wasn’t going to be much use against elite
mercenaries. 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 that
night a year ago – when everything changed.

Remembering was easier
now, although it still churned my stomach and sat bile at the base of my
throat. I’d been out partying with Tessa, and we’d been separated on the
street. Before I knew what had happened, I was grabbed by two ash. One of them
punched me in the face, and by the time I managed to pull myself together I was
in behind the security fence.

They were like rabid
dogs, 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 hand
firmly clamped over my mouth.

I cut off the thoughts. I
didn’t dwell on that night. I’d been saved. The two ash had been yanked off me
by some guy, who then ripped their heads right from their shoulders. I didn’t
know who had saved me, I only got brief glimpses of him, but he sort of
reminded 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 single
member of the Hive who came close to his description.

My biggest regret was
that I hadn’t stuck around and thanked him. All I’d thought of was escape. I
dragged myself out of the compound and called my mom to get me. I’d been beat
up, scratched, bruised, and bloodied. But I had not been raped or fed on, and I
counted myself lucky. Other human women were not usually so lucky when it came
to the ash.

That was why I’d hated
ash, right up until the moment I became one. Now I realized it was wrong to
hate an entire race just because of a few bad souls. Just like with humans,
there were good and bad in the Hive. I could see that now, and I was more than
ready to protect my newfound home and family. I was prepared to embrace my ash
side and kick some ass.

Ryder was grim-faced as he stared out of
his window, seeming to be lost in thought. Kyle pulled the Humvee in behind
some trees, on the outer perimeter of the Hive fence. Blue lights and sirens
were flickering around, casting everyone’s faces in a ghostly shadowing. Our
Hive was in lockdown, standard operating procedure in these situations. Ryder
leaned down and pulled a duffle bag out from under the seat. He rifled through
for a moment, retrieving two pairs of hand suction cups. I recognized them from
the training room.

“Sam, Markus, you scale
the outside windows and hang outside of Charlie’s apartment.”

He tossed them the
suction cups. Holy shit, like seriously? They were going to scale the thirty-three
floors to my apartment with only a suction cup to keep them from falling?
Before I could express both my worry and incredulity of this, the boys had
already slipped from the Humvee and taken off into the dark of night. I
glimpsed them scaling the high razor wire wall like it was no big deal. Then
they were gone.

Ryder looked at Kyle.
“You and Jared create a big-ass distraction. Drive the Humvee into the lobby
for all I care, just make sure all eyes and cameras are on you.”

“No worries, mate.” The
surfer dude Aussie looked completely relaxed, like he’d just agreed to ride
some gnarly waves, not crash his car into a building.

Ryder then turned to
Oliver and I. “Oliver, you’re with me and Charlie. We’ll head to her apartment,
where I’m almost certain the Sanctum will be waiting for us, with Jayden as a hostage.”

Oliver clenched his teeth
and nodded. My stomach dropped. No, no, no, no! Jayden better be okay, or
mercenaries or not I was killing myself some ash tonight.

“I’m coming with you?” I
hadn’t expected him to allow that so easily.

Ryder’s face was scary
warrior right now. I got legit chills. “You, Charlie, are my shadow. Where I
walk, you walk. If I tell you to get down, you get down. If I am not satisfied
that you are listening to me, I will knock you out and stuff you in a closet.
Do you understand?”

Damn. Ryder didn’t fuck
around. “Glue myself to your ass – got it!”

He cracked a hint of a
smile then and handed me a sleek black pistol. “I’m told you know how to use
one of these.” He glared at Kyle, who tried to hide a smirk. No guns were used
in the culling, but subduing the ash on that call last week hadn’t been the
first time I’d fired a gun. After my attack I took defense classes, and right
now the cool weight of it in my hand was oddly comforting.

Ryder took a deep breath,
rolling his head side to side, “Oliver, if after we get in the apartment I say
to get Jayden and Charlie out of there…”

Oliver nodded. “I get
them out.”

Ryder seemed satisfied.
“Let’s do this.” He picked up the CB radio. It was time to let them know we
were coming in. Of course, they didn’t know that most of us wouldn’t be coming
in the front door. “Core enforcer team inbound, ETA sixty seconds.”

Jason’s voice returned
immediately: “Thank God. Three men breeched security, killed ten of ours, and
now can’t be found.”

Shit. Three mercenaries
crawling around my home? I would never sleep again.

“We’ll take care of it,”
Ryder radioed back, and looked at all of us. “Happy hunting.”

Kyle grinned. “You know
that CB isn’t secure from the Sanctum.”

Ryder grinned back. “I
know.”

His boots slammed down on
the asphalt, and Oliver and I followed. Thank God I decided to wear my flat
boots tonight. Tires screeched as Kyle peeled out in the Humvee with Jared. They
were our distraction. In seconds we were at the chain-link fence. Once we crossed
it we’d be right outside the huge laundry room, and our best way in undetected.

I groaned as I looked at
the tall fence with razor wire at the top. “Why don’t we go in through the
front door?”

Ryder gave me a look from
the corner of his eye. “Because of Manuel.” I raised an eyebrow, and lucky for
him he continued his explanation. “The Sanctum’s sniper. Come on. Enough talk.”

He jumped up and began
climbing the fence. Oliver and I followed. Shit, this was harder than it
looked. My fingers were cutting into the wire and the holes weren’t big enough
for my feet. The cold wasn’t helping at all, but at least there was no snow or
rain to dampen the journey. The boys were smoother than me, but they had gloves
on and I didn’t. Halfway up, I winced. My fingers looked like they were turning
purple.

Ryder looked down at me.
“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, “Nothing.”
I went to reach that next section of fence when my fingers slipped. Thankfully,
I caught myself at the last second. The plunge to the ground would not have
been pleasant.

Near the top, Ryder
grabbed a chunk of the barbed fence and pulled himself over. He reached down to
help me over the last part. His strength easily hoisted me up, and I was just
swinging my leg over, my butt close to his face, when I slipped again, and we
both almost fell off the side. I was about to recover my position when a
snapping sound drew my attention. Ryder knocked me down again, the barbs
cutting into my body, and I realized what it had been. A bullet. Which had
scraped right between us, only missing because I’d slipped at that last
second. 

Ryder wasted no time then.
His huge hand basically lifted me up and hoisted me off the fence. “Soft
landing and roll, Charlie!” he shouted.

I flailed for the entire
fifteen-foot drop but was proud that I didn’t scream. I braced for the jolt as
my legs slammed on the ground and sharp pain shot up my shins. Apparently the
soft landing part had completely passed me by.

Soft landing and roll?
Was this man for reals?

I felt Ryder slam down
behind me. Oliver was there too. The three of us took off running in a zigzag,
more bullets raining around us, but we were moving too fast for them to track
us. We made it into the side entrance, and using Ryder’s ID badge were inside
in seconds. We were on target too, right near the laundry chutes. I scanned
Ryder quickly. He seemed to be unhurt, then I turned to Oliver.
Holy shit.
The
enforcer was holding his right shoulder, which was bleeding freely. I wasn’t
sure if he’d hurt himself on the fence or if he’d been hit.

“Oliver,” I said,
reaching out for him.

He brushed me off. “I’m
fine. Jayden is the priority.”

I hesitated for a moment,
before nodding. Neither of us would worry about injuries until Jayden was
safe. 

Ryder moved into my
personal space then. “They aren’t here to kill you, Charlie. Manuel never
misses. He was aiming to hurt you, not kill. They intend to capture you alive.”

And I’d thought the
sniper had missed because of our awesome dodging skills. Wait? Take me alive? I
would much rather they wanted to kill me.

 “This changes the plan
slightly. But no matter what happens in there, you stay close to me. The boys
can handle the Sanctum. They made a mistake when they brought only three. I
know one will be down in the lobby investigating Jared and Kyle. So that leaves
two for us, plus the sniper.”

Ah, so even though the
Hive thought there were three, Ryder knew there were at least four of them…

Ryder hunched over and
crept silently down the hall to the stairwell. I followed his movements to a T.
I had no doubt that if anyone could keep me alive in a dangerous situation, it
would be Ryder. He drew his weapon and then quietly opened the stairwell door, he
and Oliver taking a side each, heads craning around first before their bodies
followed. They continued moving, looking left and right. Ryder put a finger to
his lips to indicate complete quiet for the rest of the trip. We all padded
like cats up the thirty-three floors to the apartment I shared with Jayden. It
was a very long-ass trip, and I wanted to complain like a mofo, but kept quiet.
No other ash or vampire crossed our path. The Hive was on lockdown, which was a
good thing as I was jumpy and would probably shoot anybody who appeared.

We finally reached my
floor. Ryder took point, and was just about to hit the handle when I felt a
slight shift in the air. This was my only indication that something was above
us, and then a black shadow pretty much fell from the sky. My finger sort of
did a spasm, and sure enough I managed to shoot out the light above us. Great,
not only could I have killed someone, but I also plunged everything into
darkness.

This didn’t seem to
bother Ryder. He managed in one movement to spin, block the masked man’s
outstretched arm, and step in front of me in a protective stance. My ash sight
was advanced enough to see a gun fly off and clatter against the wall, but I
couldn’t tell who it had come from. It didn’t fire at least. I backed up to the
wall and stood there silently, my own weapon still grasped in my sweaty hand. I
couldn’t use it. It was too dark and I wouldn’t risk hitting one of my guys.

 Oliver moved in to help
Ryder, swift and silent even with his injury. He kicked out, cracking the guy
in the back. The black-clad man – legit dressed like a ninja, face mask and all
–  had been busy keeping Ryder from breaking his limbs and hadn’t seen Oliver. The
ninja dropped to the ground now, and on the way managed to kick out his leg and
push Oliver down the flight of stairs.

Before I could dive down
the steps to see if my friend was okay, the ninja popped up and pivoted himself
to the left. He practically flew across the stairwell in my direction. I
started to lift my gun, which had fallen uselessly to my side, but
instinctively knew I was going to be too slow. This guy moved like a shadow, so
fast he almost looked blurry. Just as his hands landed on my throat, and I was
tightening my finger on the trigger – I didn’t even care if I only managed to
shoot his nuts off, that would certainly slow him down – Ryder leapt out of the
shadows, moving in the same blurry way, cracking the ninja straight in the
temple. As the Sanctum guy stumbled, Ryder whipped up his weapon and pressed
the barrel to the back of the ninja’s head.

It was like time stopped.
I could see Ryder’s hesitation. He wasn’t a cold-hearted killer. And for all he
knew this Sanctum ninja was very possibly an old friend of his.

“Call off this job and I
will let you walk,” Ryder said, his voice clipped.

I could see the ninja breathing
deeply. “She’s worth more than any job we’ve had, and you were always too weak
to be one of us.” The ninja folded himself over, doing a front flip, his feet
kicking Ryder in the stomach, knocking him back. The ninja didn’t take time to
fight again. He jumped up high and spun over the side of the railing, down the
stairs and out of sight.

I didn’t hesitate then to
scramble down the steps to Oliver. My breath came a little easier when I saw the
Latino enforcer gaining consciousness. He groaned. I almost tripped over the
final few stairs – he’d fallen down a set of ten – and skidded to his side.

His eye fluttered a few
times before focusing on me. “I’m fine. Get Jayden!” He was all business, and I
knew he would never forgive me if I didn’t leave him in this stairwell right
now. Of course, if anything happened to Oliver, Jayden probably wouldn’t
forgive me either.

I leaned down and kissed
him on the cheek. “Stay hidden. Do not get yourself killed. We will rescue
Jayden and come back for you.”

He propped himself up.
“I’m going to try and make it to the other guys. They’ll drop me at the medical
ward. I just need some blood and I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t look fine. His
arm was bleeding pretty badly again, and bones were definitely broken in his
hand. I wondered why he wasn’t going to the feeding area for blood. Probably it
was in lockdown too.

I felt heat at my back.
Ryder was standing protectively over both of us. “Get some extra blood. We will
probably need it. Meet us back at the Humvee.”

Oliver gave his leader a
nod, and something passed between them. The sexy six were family, and none of
this situation was easy on any of them. Especially the splitting up part.

Ryder reached down then,
and before I could say anything he stashed a gun into the side of my boot. I
recognized it as the one from the ninja. I didn’t question him – he would have
a reason and I would be okay with that reason.

He started to move then,
his gun on display. I picked up my original weapon from where it had dropped. I
needed to start training again. Guns started to feel scary and odd when you didn’t
have regular contact with them.

No one jumped us this
time. The door silently opened, and my eyes remained glued on the broad
shoulders in front of me. I didn’t question, I just followed him down the hall.
My apartment door was unlocked, but Ryder kicked it open hard, like it was no
more than a piece of paper, and it banged against the wall.

I couldn’t see anything
at first. Ryder went in front, gun drawn and his scary face in play. He blocked
my sight for about eight seconds, but the moment I could see around him my
blood did this strange thing where it boiled and froze all at the same time. Jayden
was tied to a chair, an unmasked mercenary standing behind him. He was not
particularly tall or broad, and had no real defining features. He was sort of
bland in a mousy brown-haired way. But his eyes, they were scary – ash black,
literally no silver – and they looked flat … dead. This was not a good dude.