Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2)(28)

But unnatural. I preferred when she looked more real.

Now she was like a perfectly crafted doll, skin flawless and smooth. Not a single mark of her previous life remained, not the tiny scar that had been on her chin from when she got hit with a softball in gym, or those couple of persistent freckles which she did her best to cover with concealer. Nope. Nothing.

I flinched as her swirling-silver eyes swept over me. She squealed, dropping her bottle and pushing a nurse aside to reach out and grab my arm. She yanked me into a rib-crushing hug.

"Charlie! My bestie." Her voice was full of happiness and I didn't want to bring the world crashing down around her, but the roil of emotions inside guaranteed there was no way I could fake anything in regards to this.                       
       
           



       

My voice wavered, tears so close to falling. "You have no idea what you've done," I choked out, my senses filled with her odd new smell, all vanilla and coppery blood. "I can't believe you did this to yourself  …  to me."

She released me from my hug. "I figured you would be pissed for a few days. But once you realize how amazing it is having me around you'll see this was the best idea ever. Where's Jayden? Have you seen how incredible my hair is?" She was actually grinning and it had my stomach churning. No real surprise that she was bouncing like a five-year-old on a chocolate high. I had always been the responsible part of our duo. She was the naïve, carefree one.

My voice was clipped: "Jayden is working in the blood feeding center. Ash are given ten hour a day jobs and made to live separately from the vampires. We live in cramped dorms and you will get your own fancy suite. I'm only permitted five minutes to visit you today and then you'll be taken away to your new life and we'll barely see each other."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Charlie, don't be such a mom. I'll go meet with whomever to sort out my new apartment and stuff and then I'll come over tomorrow for movies and pizza." She bounced again.

Then her face dropped as soon as she caught her mistake. "Blood and movies, whatever. Pizza is overrated."

Now my arms were crossed because my BFF just talked shit on my favorite food. Pizza would never be overrated. Knowing my time with her was almost up, I had to move forward and deal with the most important reason for my visit. There were eyes on us, so I did the only thing I could and pulled her in for another hug.

"Meet me on the roof tomorrow night, at midnight," I whispered, and as I released her, turning to walk away, her perfect face was prettily creased in frowns.

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying, because something told me Tessa would not be running away with us. Tessa seemed to like her new life just fine.

Craptastic.



The next day we were on the rooftop getting some sun. Two of the enforcers remained on rotational Charlie guard duty, and all of us had started to notice a pattern of random vampires outside the hallway of my apartment. It was a floor completely dedicated to ash housing, so they had no reason to be there. Bloodsuckers were keeping tabs on me.

We continued to keep all of our conversation inside the Hive general and light. We had confirmation that the bastards had bugged my apartment. The boys swept for them and found a few. We didn't bother to destroy them; they would only replace them again, and we didn't want them to know we were on to them. The ones they'd killed in the locker room were different. They expected the enforcers to be suspicious and to keep up security in there, but bugs in the apartment of the Hive, well, they knew we'd only sweep in there if we were suspicious of something.

For now, Jayden was laying low and staying out of our little rooftop planning session, but was ready to go with us at any moment.

Shit was most definitely going to hit the fan soon.

That morning, as we all sat in a little huddle, I decided it was time to inform the rest of them of my plans. I met Ryder's gaze, knowing it would make him rage.

"I'm going to sneak into the girl's room tomorrow in the daytime, when she's sleeping, and feed her my blood. Then we can bust ass out of here." Finding the bugs in my room, and vamps in my hall, had really shaken me. I felt like they were closing in on us, and I did not want anyone caught in the Hive's deadly clutches. I didn't care about Sam's timing, I wanted out of here.

Ryder gave me a look-you know the one men get when they're torn between exasperation and annoyance. It was a look Ryder had down to a fine art. "Charlie, I admire your spirit  …  but that's a stupid plan."

My mouth popped open. Did he just say  …  did he call me stupid? Anger fired my blood and I opened my mouth to rip him a new one, but before I could speak his hand came up to stop me.

"What will you do about the guards at her door?"

Great. Twenty questions time. I crossed my arms. "Knock them over the head!"

He chuckled. The man actually chuckled at me.

"What about her nanny that most likely sleeps in the apartment with her?" Markus added.

I didn't have a reply.

"How exactly will you force her to take your blood?" asked Kyle. "What if she goes crazy, as new vampires are known to, and drinks too much and you pass out?"

My face was beginning to redden as they teamed up on me. Dammit, it wasn't just Ryder. All of these sexy bastards had beauty and brains.                       
       
           



       

I suppose I had jumped in with little to no thought, but I seriously needed her safe. It was keeping me up at night. "Fine, assholes, you design the rescue mission, but this is happening, and soon, because I can't sleep knowing this girl could be killed."

All of their faces softened then and it surprised me when Sam spoke: "You're good for us, Charlie. We've been doing this so long, watched too many cullings, seen too much death. We've become desensitized to the evil of the vampires."

A silence settled over our small rooftop group. What Sam just said had struck a chord and rang true. Something within me shifted. It had been slowly chipping away for the last few months, but finally the last iota of my long-held belief that the ash were evil by association with the vampires was gone.

I could see now that the vampires had created a perfect little society with ash as their slaves, brainwashed them into killing, made them feel less powerful and more dependent on the Hive for survival. Rage boiled up inside of me. This was not okay!

I met Sam's eyes, which were blazing with almost equal parts silver to black. "I will bring down this Hive if it's the last thing I do. I'll bring down all of them."

Kyle nodded. "Now we're talking."

But when I turned to Ryder, something in his face made me falter-a shade of vulnerability. He didn't like that we were going to take on the powerful vamps. I had no doubt he would back me and his boys all the way, but I guess the responsibility of our lives weighed heavily on him. I reached out and took his hand.

"We're all adults here." My gaze flicked across to Jared, who was laid back with his mouth open, asleep and lightly snoring. "Okay, most of us are adults here, and we make these decisions knowing full well what the consequences could be. You don't carry this alone. You don't have to shoulder the burden of our choices."

He was all fierce now. "You guys are my family, and I will tear down anyone who tries to mess with that. It is my responsibility. I know we have no options left. The vampires are going to act soon. My clearance level is practically gone. The information I had available to me is no longer there. The Quorum is gunning for Charlie, and even though I only have theories on what their end plan is, we can never let them get their hands on her. She will be gone, and they have the money and resources to keep her gone forever."

I actually shivered at that thought. Definitely couldn't let that happen. I would not want to find myself at the mercy of creatures who demonstrated daily that they had no mercy.

Speaking of …

"Have we heard anything about Deliverance?"

The news on them had been pretty much non-existent since we'd commandeered all their money and had a major street fight that was somehow covered up and didn't even make the local news program. Which was probably to do with SWAT and their interest in the religious group. At least it was nice to see reports of the charities who received the money. They'd been overjoyed by their windfalls and it made my heart happy to see some of the work which was already in place through the generosity of those Bible bashers.

"Gone underground," Markus said. "They have to regroup, and I heard there was a mass call put out for donations, but the human population is getting a little tired of their hate mongering."

Which hopefully meant it would take them many years to rebuild. Still, they would always find someone with too much money and hate in their soul. I had no doubts they would eventually be back.

Sam shifted then, his fingers flying over the keyboard. He'd been practically buried in his laptop the last few days. It was one of the few we had left which was completely safe. "I think I've found a place to stash the little girl when Charlie cures her," he said, his voice very quiet. "There are pockets of humans who are sympathetic to ash. They have reserves scattered around the world, offering short-term safe passage to ash if they decide to run from the Hives. Human law enforcement check in on them, so there is no way ash can stay long term, but that won't be an issue once the little girl is human."