We didn't have time to get the other boys or try to communicate with them. We had to assume every move we made was being watched and listened to. We moved as fast as possible without arousing suspicion. Ryder led the way, right into the locker room. Inside, Sam was on one of the weight machines, but he dropped it and jumped up when he saw our faces.
Ryder reached out and grasped his friend by the shoulder, leaning in closer and talking to Sam in another language, which I was pretty sure was French. My jaw was on the floor right about then. How could I not know he spoke French? My boyfriend's hotness had just skyrocketed. Dear God. That body and he speaks foreign languages.
As Ryder finished Sam nodded swiftly, and strode across the gym, flipped open his laptop, and within seconds was typing like a crazy person.
Suddenly the siren over the locker room, which told us that there was a call coming in, started wailing. I met Sam's eyes and grinned as he winked.
Jason, one of the call room ash, came running in. "We've got another suspected ash. On Alberta Street, may have attacked a human." He was out of breath.
Thanks to Sam, the world's best hacker, we'd just been handed the perfect excuse to get out of the Hive.
Ryder nodded at the panicky ash. "Thank you. Don't bother to call out anyone else. We're on it."
We suited up quickly, tossing on bulletproof vests, and guns, before jogging out the door.
In the Humvee, Ryder sat shotgun and Kyle drove, while Sam slid in beside me. We peeled out in a rush of screeching tires and engine acceleration. I noticed when we were halfway across the grounds that the gate wasn't opening like it normally did.
"What's happening?" Ryder leaned forward, his eyes locked in. I knew what was worrying him-dispatch always radioed the gate to open it for us. If they hadn't, that must mean …
Mother-effers. "They're stopping us!" I pounded the back of the seat.
Sam was hammering away on his laptop as Kyle slammed on the brakes. We had been barreling along and had to slow or we'd have smashed into the fence.
"They're not blocking me," Sam said, and I breathed out a huge sigh of relief when the gate opened. "But they didn't dispatch through like normal."
Thank God he'd thought to bring his computer with him. Maybe he had anticipated this happening. Why hadn't they dispatched it through? Was the Quorum not even trying to pretend they weren't targeting us now? The thought was partly liberating but mostly frightening.
Kyle gunned it. A guard had stepped out of his tower to stop us, but when it was clear we were not slowing this vehicle, he did the smart thing and jumped out of our way.
"Where did they say the ash was? Legacy hospital?" I asked, playing my part for the listening vampires. It was also the easiest way to let them know that was where my mom worked.
Sam played along. "Yeah, just near that on Alberta."
After the longest eight minutes of my life, Kyle hopped the Humvee onto the curb outside of the emergency room where my mom worked. I had the door open and was halfway out before the car had even stopped. I was powering toward the entrance when a familiar scream rang out into the night and had me changing direction toward the smoker's alley. That shriek had sounded an awful lot like my mom.
The boys were close behind me, and as I turned the corner the scene was definitely not what I had expected. There, standing in the alley was the guy, the blond Viking-looking vampire who had saved me from my attack over a year ago. He had my mother in his arms, cradling her gently, and there were three mangled bodies at his feet.
"Mom!" I screamed, shaking off my stupor, stumbling toward her.
She looked stunned to see me, but that didn't stop her from tearing herself from Viking dude's grasp and running at me. In the dull light I noticed her scrubs were torn, and I could smell fresh blood on her. Looked like there were some gashes on her arm.
No surprise that she looked like she had put up a fight. There was nothing more badass than a single working mom.
"Charlie, thank God you're okay!" Pulling me in for a hug, my eyes wandered back over to the blond vampire who was standing there, barely moving. Why had she been hugging him?
"Who's that?" I gestured to the Norse god before us.
My mom sighed and met his gaze before turning to me. "Charlie, this is Carter, your father."
What the … ?
The one who saved me from my attack was my father?
I was happy to see I wasn't the only one standing there dumbfounded.
Ryder, Kyle, Sam, and I were all frozen, mouths open, staring at Carter. An Original vampire. In real life. Alive.
Eventually Carter cleared his throat and walked closer to us. "Hello, Charlie, I've been keeping an eye out for you and your mother for a long time, but it's nice to officially meet you."
Okay, this was not exactly how I'd envisioned meeting my father. Not only had I just stumbled onto a scene where he'd killed a bunch of vamp douchewads, but then his first words were an admittance of stalking.
I guess no families were perfect.
With barely a hesitation, I reached out and shook his hand, before blurting out the first thing that came into my head: "You have blond hair?" I'd always thought I got my dark hair from my father. My mother raised me believing that her boyfriend who died in the war was my father. He had been a human with hair as dark as mine. But when we found out I was an ash and fathered by Carter … well, I had just assumed that he was the one I had inherited the hair color from.
Carter's lips raised in an easy smile. I could see he was amused. Ryder stepped forward then; his hand slipped into mine and he gave a gentle squeeze, which felt both supportive and encouraging.
"Can you fly?" Kyle asked him, and Carter's smile turned into a laugh. My mom's eyes lit up at the sight of him laughing. Oh my God, she still loved him. Who wouldn't? He was gorgeous, ya know, in a good looking dad kinda way.
"Something like that," Carter told Kyle, and winked. Whoa, so the rumors about the Originals were true. They were totally scary and powerful.
"Oh shit. Cool," Kyle replied.
Carter was suddenly all business, turning back to the bodies in the alley. "Hive will come looking for their boys soon. We need to move."
Crap! There was no way the Quorum wouldn't trace this back to us. We had left the Hive at the perfect time for this attack, and now all of the vamps were dead. Hopefully it would still be a few days before they came for us. Our plan was hinging on it.
An hour later, I was sitting in a remote wooded park with my mom, Carter and the enforcers. Carter and I were spending a lot of time staring at each other. I was fascinated with the Original vampire. He seemed different from the other bloodsuckers, a strange combination of lethal Viking and refined gentleman. I could definitely see why my mom fell for him. He was enigmatic. I sat beside Joanna, and Carter stood before us. My enforcer bodyguards were lurking around, making sure we remained alone.
"I need you to get my mom out of Portland, it's not safe for her here anymore." I turned to face the unflappable Bennett mama at my side. She'd just been attacked in an alley and was as calm as anything. "I'm going to have to run soon, and there's no way I can do that if I know you're here and they could come after you at any time." I told her.
Finally, some worry pulled down the corner of her lips and eyes. It wasn't worry for herself though, it was all for me. "Charlie, baby, come with us. Carter already told me he has a safe house set up."
I shook my head, Jayden and the rest of the gang were waiting for us back at the Hive and I didn't want to lead trouble to my mom. She was better off nowhere near me. I turned back to my father, forcing myself to not lose focus again. He was just so mesmerizing. I opened my mouth to ask him where he planned to take her, but other questions emerged instead. "Why did you leave her … us? How could you do this and leave both of us vulnerable to the Hive?" Anger tightened my voice. Ever since I had found out I was an ash, all I'd wondered about was him, my vampire father, and how he could abandon his family.
Emotions flickered across his face; sparks of gold were really strong in his silver eyes. They were not like regular vamps' color, nope. His were flecked through with golden stars or some shit.
"I'm hunted for my blood, Charlie, for the purity of the original virus. I wanted to stay. I tried to make it work, but in the end I had to do what I thought was best to keep you both safe, which was to keep myself alive to look after you. Your mother and I thought you were human because you were female, and me being around was only going to get both of you killed."
"So you ran?"
He nodded, those blond braids scattered through his thick tresses of hair flying around. "I ran. But I always came back, checking in, making sure you were cared for. I deposited small amounts of money, never enough that anyone would check into you. If either of you ever needed me, I would have been there."