I smiled at that part. Ryder had a code word for me.
“And if the phones are tapped, we most likely have an inside mole,” Markus offered.
Well … shit. At least Ryder was safe. Silver lining. Not to mention he’d cared enough to make sure they brought me along. That had to mean something.
After about thirty minutes of tense atmosphere in the car, we pulled up to a private Lake in a fancy suburb of Portland.
“This is where he had his sixteenth birthday?” I looked around and saw one thing: money. Big houses, fancy cars, and a beautiful lake with a huge clubhouse overlooking it.
Kyle crept the SUV up to the farthest parking spot, encasing it in the darkness.
“The clubhouse, yeah. We were rich kids. Get over it.”
Ouch. Sensitive subject. They should have tried being a not rich kid. I had my sixteenth birthday in a Chucky Cheese.
“How is it that you and Ryder both grew up in the same neighborhood and were both ash?” Seriously, what were the odds of that.
Kyle lifted his full lips into a smile, kind of creepy that grin. “Our mothers were best friends, rich girls with overindulgent families. It was the ‘60s, free love and all that shit. They both got knocked up by vampires at the same party. This was right around the time that groups were lobbying for equal rights. They were supposed to stop all the testing on our kind, and it was sort of the in thing to try and have an ash baby.”
I vaguely remember Tessa telling me that the ‘60s had been the biggest time for ash in all of vampire history. So Ryder and Kyle were over fifty years old. Of course, they didn’t look a day out of their early twenties. Ash aged so slowly, it was like twenty human years to one ash. We lived a very long time.
“Ryder and I have been buds since birth, and there is no better human or ash in the world. We are lucky to have him.” Kyle finished his little speech, sinking back to wait out the rest of the time in silence. Which was okay by me, I had plenty of thoughts to keep me occupied. Especially about the enigmatic and quite mysterious head enforcer.
We sat in the van for what felt like forever. After a certain amount of time I was no longer able to be patient. I was seriously about five seconds from losing my shit when, finally, I saw a familiar shadow hobble out of some tall, thick reeds. My heart started to beat double-time and I had to stop myself from rushing out of the vehicle and throwing myself at him. Ryder was looking a little worse for wear, limping and holding his right shoulder.
Kyle burst out of the SUV, gun drawn, and I decided that I was definitely following him. Thank God it was dark out, ‘cause Kyle and I looked shady as shit, especially with his gun waving around.
I forced myself to stop a few feet from Ryder. I wanted to hug him but wasn’t sure if I should. It felt a little weird between us, so much unresolved after that kiss. Before I could mentally break apart our relationship any further, Kyle swooped in, his long arms loping across Ryder’s shoulders, taking his weight.
“Charlie’s not safe,” he mumbled as we walked back to the van.
Kyle and I exchanged a glance. Ryder was barely audible. He was in worse shape than I’d thought. What had happened? What did this have to do with me and the fact that he knew something about me “not being safe?” When we reached the car, Markus and Oliver piled into the far back. I squeezed in between Jared and Sam, allowing Ryder to take shotgun. The injured ash took the white gauze which Sam had pulled from the med kit for him and wiped away some of the red on his forehead, the cuts looked to have already healed. In the close confines of the car, his copper blood hit me and I was instantly reminded of drinking from him.
Trying my best to ignore this, I leaned forward, peeking through the middle seat. “What happened? Pilot said you didn’t make your flight? How are you here?” Seattle was a three-hour drive from Portland – he had gotten back somehow.
Ryder barked out a laugh. “Is that what he told you? I made the flight. Bastard set me up. I got jumped by some enforcers from another Hive when the pilot landed in this field just outside of Portland. Said we needed to pick up another person. I didn’t trust him, so I was ready.”
Holy shit. Ryder fought a group of enforcers and got away alive?
Ryder met my eyes. “Charlie, they had your original blood work. They know that you’re not showing normal ash blood and that you’re a direct descendant of the fourth house. They’re after you. They were trying to recruit me to their cause. Offered me money and plenty of other incentives to turn against you.”
Bastards. Guess I was lucky Ryder had an honor code. I had never doubted that he was a good guy deep down, even if he had electrocuted me.