Ash(65)

“All good, little unicorn. Our big bad leader will be back before you know it. He told me to tell you he says hello.”

I tried to conceal the middle-school squeal that wanted to rip from my throat. Instead, I nodded.



The rest of the day passed agonizingly slow. Oliver and Jayden were shacked up in the room, so after my shift I took off to the roof and spent the better part of an hour jogging my ass off. It didn’t help with the frustration at all, and the fact that Lucas still wasn’t home the five other times I checked that day didn’t help either. Tessa could be in the middle of any shitty situation and I would never know, because for the first time in ages I had no emails from her. My little outburst had pretty much ensured she wouldn’t be telling me much about her vampire excursions.

I had to stop her before she did something stupid, but of course the moment I needed Lucas, the white-trenched-coat vampire was nowhere to be found.

I trudged back to my apartment, grateful to find Jayden there alone, looking a whole lot relaxed. “Hey, ready for dinner?” he said as I stormed through the door.

“Yeah, just give me five minutes.” I was starving, but definitely needed to shower off my run sweat.

I was done in about eight minutes, taking an extra second to choose my clothing and add a little makeup. I might be a tad pissed at Ryder, but I sure as shit wanted to look my best when we first saw each other. Three days and no email? Jerk … even if he was busy working.

“Hot damn, baby, you could turn this gay ash’s head any day of the week.” Jayden whistled as he took in my skinny jeans, flat ankle boots, and skintight tank. It was one of those which was ripped in places and held together by these little scraps of lace. Everything was black, and I’d gone a little heavier on my eyes than normal. Not to mention leaving my hair down to hang in straight layers to mid-back.

I blew Jayden a kiss, crossing to link arms with him. We rolled out and made our way into the ash dining room. It was packed; we were late as usual, and as always the entire room basically paused for a second when we entered.

Jayden didn’t sweat shit like that, simply dragging me across the room toward the enforcers’ table. We had the privilege of sitting there. Not many were accepted into their little group, but the thing with Ryder and me, not to mention Jayden and Oliver, assured that we made the cut. The sexy six might need a new name. Exciting eight. Exotic eight … I’d work on a name for us.

I paused as I counted only five heads there. Before the disappointment could bowl me over, I was distracted by the way they were leaning into each other, conversing too low to hear. Their tense faces sent trills of fear through me.

Something was wrong.

Jayden left me and took off for the long rows of food. As usual he was more than starving, and would soon be back with his Mount Everest size plate of food. I didn’t follow. My appetite was now nonexistent as I took the last few stumbling steps to fall down into the spare chair beside Kyle. Five sets of black eyes locked on me, and even though each of the enforcers’ looks were unique, right then they were all wearing the same expression.

“Just give it to me straight,” I said, wasting no time on bullshit. “You all look like you’re about to kill the next fucking person who glances sideways at you, so I know something has happened.”

Kyle and Markus – the red-headed enforcer, looking surprisingly clean cut and handsome, having trimmed his bushy beard and man bun – exchanged a glance and I forced myself not to scream and stamp my foot. Just as I was about to jump up and start beating the shit out of them, even though they could wipe the floor with me every day and twice on Sunday, Markus answered.

His voice was gruff, the thickness of his accent making the growl worse. “Ryder was supposed to check in when he left, and then again when he landed. He should have been back at the compound thirty minutes ago.”

Kyle picked up the conversation. “He did text me when he got to the airport. The private plane was ready to take off. He never checked in upon landing, and when I called the flight control, they said Ryder never showed. He didn’t make the flight.”

While they were talking, there was this strange ringing in my head, like a buzz or something. It was my panic, and it was distracting enough that it took me more than a few moments to wrap my head around what they were saying. Ryder was missing. Ryder who was the most badass ash in America. What the hell could have happened to him?

I forced the nausea down, and clenching both fists in front of me landed hard eyes on each and every single one of the boys. “Well, what the fuck are we waiting for? Let’s go find out what happened to him!” I get all cursey when I’m scared or worried.