Ash(58)

“Don’t kill him!” I shouted at Kyle. Something inside of me felt bad for him. It wasn’t his fault. This was me a few months ago. He came at me like a zombie, arms out, fangs distended.

I jumped up and did a roundhouse kick to his temple, but he caught my leg midair, and an instant later I heard a loud snap.

Son of a bitch…

I let out a strangled scream and shot him again, this time in the gut, mostly to stop him from ripping my leg off. The guy folded over on himself, clutching his stomach, and I used this opportunity to bring the butt of the gun down on the back of his head. Kyle was right there to pin him down and wrestle reinforced steel zip ties onto his hands. Which was great because I was in a world of pain, and about to be completely useless. I favored my good leg while waiting for Kyle to finish securing the ash. All the while I was trying not to cry.

Kyle stood then, and I could see the new ash was out cold. The enforcer appraised me. “I’m kind of impressed, although Ryder is going to kill my ass for letting you get injured.”

I tried to smile. It felt more like a grimace. “What do we do now?” I asked, hoping like hell we were heading back to the Hive. I needed blood, and rest, and more blood. And possibly a good hour with Jayden to cry about how people kept breaking me.

“The others are almost here.”

When he said others I knew it was members of the sexy six. This core group of enforcers were the badasses of the ash and vampire world. They stepped in when no one else would take the job. And since Ryder trusted all of them, I was also starting to think of them as part of my people.

Kyle left me then to attend to the boy’s mother. She was very still and pale, and I wondered if we were too late. Kyle’s dirty blond hair shone in the half light as he leaned over her, feeling for a pulse and shifting her into a better position. “She’s still alive, her pulse is steady,” he said, lifting his head so I could see the very dark of his eyes. “The human doctors will take care of her. She’s going to be fine – just a little blood loss.”

I sank against the wall, which was currently holding me up. “That’s great!” From the first moment I heard those screams on the phone, I’d feared we were going to be too late. Seems we’d made it just on time.

Noise drew my attention then, starting low and increasing as more than one set of heavy boots clomped outside the single-story house. The front door Kyle had slammed into when we’d first entered had been leaning into the doorframe, and now slid to the side to reveal Markus, Jared, Sam, and Oliver. As usual when they were all together, the room shrank in from all the tall, beautiful, and deadly they were throwing around. Oliver noticed me first and broke ranks to come and assess my leg.

I winced as he tried flex my ankle. “Ow!”

He shook his head. “What happened? Ryder will want a full report when he gets back from paying his respects.”

I frowned. Paying his respects? What was he talking about?

Kyle glared at Oliver. “She took a call. It was an emergency and I needed backup. I didn’t think she would roundhouse kick a newly-turned ash in the face.”

The other four guys whistled low and appraised me with pride. Markus’ deep brogue drifted across the room. “No shit? Our unicorn is kind of a badass.”

Great, unicorn had officially stuck as a nickname. Sirens could be heard coming down the street.

Kyle looked me in the eyes, both respect and a glint of something extra there. Like acceptance. “What do you expect from someone trained by Ryder?”

Since the humans were on their way, we needed to bail. Oliver scooped me up into his arms, which I didn’t love, but walking was out of the question. Kyle and silent Sam lifted the newly-turned ash by the armpits. He was groaning and just beginning to wake.

“Come on, you know the drill. We need to leave so the human medics can help the mom.” Kyle ushered us all outside and we loaded into the two Hive vans just as the paramedics pulled up. There was an awkward moment as our two groups crossed paths, the human medics glaring us down. Really? We just saved her life. Well … we wouldn’t have had to if one of our monsters hadn’t bitten her. Okay, point taken. Humans hated us, and rightfully so.

The new ash was taken with some of the enforcers back to the Hive to await a transfer to another city, whichever one was still taking ash, or had a culling coming up. Poor guy, he had no clue the shit storm that was about to be his life. Good luck in the killing – I mean culling – buddy.

Oliver and Kyle let me stretch out on the back seat, resting my leg for the trip home. Truth be told, my leg hurt like hell, but that was the most fun I’d had all week. Screw answering phones, I wanted to be an enforcer.