Before they could answer, my eyes were drawn to a nearby wall, which was plastered with government issued "Are you an ash?" posters, the ones which listed the symptoms and had the hotline number at the bottom. All of them were defaced with red spray paint, so fresh it still dripped from the posters. It took me a second in the dim light, but then I finally realized what had been tagged on them. One word: Evil. I shivered. Okay, now I was more than creeped out-standing here in the dark streets after having just been smoke-bombed out of my dinner date.
Some of the tension left Ryder as he holstered his weapon and gestured to the poster. "They're a pain in my ass. Call themselves ‘Deliverance.' It's a religious group that think we're all evil and want to wipe us from the Earth, and since they have insane amounts of money, they have plenty of resources at their disposal. Their end game is to cure the world of vampirism."
A moment later Ryder and I froze as if a damn light bulb had gone off above both of our heads.
Holy shit.
Did they know about the pit? No! They couldn't, right? How could they know? Ryder would not have left any loose ends for them to find, that was for sure, but I guess there was still my blood work out there. The Hive had taken more than one sample from me, and who knew where those results ended up. Not to mention we were all pretty sure there was a mole in the Hive, maybe feeding information out into the human world. That was why we trusted no one outside of this core group. And Jayden.
With their hate-on for our kind, I didn't believe Deliverance was in bed with Sanctum, but the timing of the two attacks was hard to ignore. Was there a connection between the groups? Someone in our Hive? Or had we just been unlucky enough to be the only ash out on Deliverance's nightly "clean up the streets" vendetta? Either way, I knew my time was running out. Secrets always came out.
I must have made a noise, some sort of distressed whimper. Ryder's head shot up and we shared an intense look. From the corner of my eye I noticed the bewildered stares of the rest of the boys. Kyle was the one exception. He already had all the facts.
There was so much hidden emotion on Ryder's stony face. He seemed worried, like, for the first time he had no answers.
A Humvee peeled around the corner, distracting us all. Sam was at the wheel, his face alive and murderous. Shooting up the Deliverance was clearly his idea of a good time. He screeched to a halt, opening the door and tossing Ryder the keys.
"Four men packing deadly weapons. They intended to kill, or possibly capture," he said, in typical Sam style, using as few words as he could.
Ryder's hardened expression did not ease, although he let out a small huff, resigned.
"Boys, we need to talk." He motioned to the Hummer and in silence we all piled in.
I knew what was coming. We couldn't keep my secret forever, and if Ryder trusted the sexy six with my life, then I did too. We had to tell them so they knew just what we were up against.
No one spoke as we left the restaurant; the tension inside the vehicle was palpable. It was a tight squeeze in a single car. Guess they'd go back for the other Hummer later. After about ten minutes of silent driving, I realized Ryder was going in the opposite direction of the Hive. I was about to say something when I saw a familiar landmark. He was taking us to the lake, the place where he grew up. No doubt he was worried that the Humvee was bugged, and after the Sanctum attacks we weren't taking any chances. We needed to ferret out that mole in our Hive ASAP.
The other enforcers remained mute, staring out the window, following Ryder's lead. As we halted in a small section which was blocked off from the main road by a mass of trees, Ryder threw the car in park and we exited.
I snuggled tighter into my black jacket, pulling my hood over my head against the cold. Ryder maneuvered his way around to me, reached out and took my hand. Even in the darkness I could see the silver of his eyes as our gazes met.
His voice was calm, serious. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes." There was not an ounce of hesitation in my reply. I trusted Ryder to the same level as my mom and Tess. Family level. Sure, he had electrocuted me once, but I had pretty much let that go.
The hardness he'd been shrouded in since our date had been interrupted, finally started to ease. My trust meant something to him. His grip tightened as he pulled me close and turned to lead us through the trees. The rest of the guys flanked us as we walked for a few minutes away from the car and into a wooded green space. Portland was full of government-protected greenspace forests, which I loved; it felt like home when I was surrounded by nature.
As we crunched our way through the woods, I wondered how the rest of the sexy six would react to the fact that I was some sort of vampire cure. I was nervous. Even though I knew these guys deserved to know the truth when they had to risk their lives for me, I still wondered if we were doing the right thing spreading this information.
Eventually Ryder stopped and we all huddled in a circle. The rain had thankfully eased, but the cold was still prevalent. Ash genetics could only do so much to keep us warm.
Jared was the first to speak: "What's up, mate? Must be some serious sort of news to drag us out into the ass-end of the city?" I took a moment to appreciate the Australian enforcer's accent. Man, I was a sucker for accents, and we had a sexy mix of them in this group.
Ryder's voice was low but clear, and I took some reassurance in the way he seemed completely unworried.
"Charlie is more than just a female ash … "
My focus, as always, was on the lead enforcer, but for some reason I felt the scrutiny of one of the others. Sure enough, as I shifted my gaze, I realized Sam was eyeballing me. Hard. I shivered a little. He was the toughest of all the enforcers to read, and even an idiot would see he was filled to the brim with secrets.
"Remember that vamp in the club who bit her … ?"
I realized that Ryder was still explaining, and unable to stand the tension any longer I had a brain-to-mouth-filter malfunction.
"I'm the cure for vampirism," I blurted.
There was dead silence for a few moments after that-wide eyes and slack jaws. Yep, that was not what most of them had expected the news to be.
Oliver, who was as manly as they came, decided now to channel his inner Jayden as he threw out a few flamboyant hand gestures. "Excuse me? What did you just say?"
I exhaled loudly. "Like Ryder was saying, that vamp asshole bit me at the club and then you all threw him in the pit..."
They nodded.
"We went down to free him," Kyle said, "as per Quorum orders, and imagine our surprise when he turned up as a human."
Most of the boys still looked shocked, but Sam's face was a mask of calm. I was getting a feeling about him, like he knew more than he was saying. Of course, before I could press him, the others distracted me with a bunch of curses and angry exclamations.
"Well, shit, looks like our little unicorn is dipped in gold," Markus finally said, his brogue deep and smooth. "What's the plan?"
Ryder took a moment. I could almost see the tumult of thoughts flashing through his mind. "I got rid of the human. No one knows about Charlie."
Sam's growl cut him off. "You can't know that." His voice was dark, ominous. The man of few words looked fired up, which had more alarm bells ringing in my head.
Ryder's brow furrowed at his mysterious best friend. "You're right. I don't know for absolute sure that this information is not in the community. And the timing of the Sanctum and Deliverance attacks are suspicious to say the least. The truth is, it's only a matter of time until someone comes for her again, so we have two options. Stay and play good boys at the Hive-use that time to tap into our resources and try to find the mole, try to find who hired the Sanctum, and see if we can discern any connection between Sanctum and Deliverance. Then when the shit hits the fan, I take Charlie and run." Clearly he'd had the same thoughts as me outside the restaurant. "Or … I can just take Charlie now and run."
Whoa. Run where? Survive how? The fact that Ryder was willing to drop everything and run away to protect me did crazy fluttery things to my insides. I understood why we had to run. Not even Ryder could take on the entire vampire population, yet I hated the thought that anyone would give up their life for me. This was bullshit, the entire thing.
"We run." Markus said with force.
"Huh?" I said, furrowing my brows.
Kyle nodded. "We stay in the Hive, gather information, and when the shit hits the fan, we run. Together."
He put his fist in the center of the circle, and each of the sexy six followed suit. After their macho fist bump, Ryder tucked me closer to his strong frame.
"I'll start planning for that day. Until then, we tell no one."
As we turned to start back to the car, Sam, who had still been staring at me the entire time, growled through clenched teeth: "This can never be mentioned inside the Hive. If her secret is found out by the humans, she will be experimented on and drained to distribute the cure and end the virus. If her secret is found out by the vampires, she will be decapitated and then burned for fear of her taking away all their power." Since he rarely spoke in full sentences, we all knew he felt strongly about this information.