“Seriously?” I threw my hands up as frustration rocked me. “You never speak, and the first time you do, it’s to tell everyone to knock me out. If any of you boneheads lay a single finger on me I am going to make you pay. Every single one of you will have hair remover in your shampoo, and wax strips stuck to your ass.” I jabbed a finger at Markus. “Even you, pretty boy man-bun. You will take me with you now, and together we will save Jayden and our Hive.”
Some of the tension left the car then. Jared’s eyes were flat-out laughing as he locked in on me, his blond curls messy as he ran a hand through them. “She’s got us there, mates, I certainly don’t want no hair grabber stuck on my arse.”
Ryder got very close to me then, his eyes boring into mine, his scent enveloping me and pretty much knocking me over. “You will stay with me the entire time, Charlie. If you can’t promise that, I won’t take you back. We go in there knowing that they plan on taking or killing you. You have to understand this before you agree.”
I swallowed, trying to remember how to speak. What was my name again? I had to blink a few times to clear my hazy thoughts. “I promise to stay close to one of the enforcers, but you also have to promise me that we will make Jayden a priority. He is my family.”
Ryder and I remained eye-locked for some endless moments, his eyes dropping for a second to stare at my lips. I wondered if he was remembering our kiss too. Finally he gave me a head nod and I knew it was settled.
Kyle threw me a grin. “We’re with you all the way. Your family is our family, Charlie. You should know that by now.”
That gave me all the warm feels. It had always been just me, my mom, and Tessa. But now my family was so much larger. Maybe becoming an ash wasn’t the curse I had always believed. Maybe it was so much more.
It was pitch black by the time we reached the outer limits of Portland. The drive had been silent. Ryder had downed a few bottles of blood before crashing out and sleeping most of the way.
“How did he managed to fight off a group of ash enforcers?” I finally asked Kyle as the familiar outskirts came into view. “And one of these Sanctum mercenaries. Is he a normal ash?”
I heard more than one snort from the crew around me, and I guess that was a pretty stupid thing to say. We all knew Ryder was beyond a normal ash by a million, but why? Was it just because he was so close to an Original? I mean, why was he so kickass and awesome and I was just … me? I was directly sired by an Original … or something. It was so confusing, because my results said I wasn’t really an ash. I probably sucked as an Original descendant because I was not one at all. The blood work was inconclusive, which basically meant they didn’t have a fucking clue what I was.
Ryder answered my earlier question. “I had more than a little motivation.” He shifted in his seat, stretching out a little, waking up. “They mentioned that you were the target, offered me the bribe, and I kind of lost it.”
“What happened to the rest of them?” Oliver asked. His tanned skin was looking even darker than usual.
“Dead,” Ryder said, his tone flat.
I actually shivered then, and it was in that moment I realized that Ryder was really scary. I mean, I’d always known he was scary, but I’d never felt the force of that emotion around him before.
The CB radio blared to life: “Core Enforcer team, come in! What’s your status? We have been infiltrated by suspected rival Hive. Although no one is in sight. Quorum is going into lockdown.”
The enforcers exchanged a glance, but none of them picked up the radio. They believed that not only was there a mercenary group hired to find me, but a traitor in our Hive. They would not give any heads-up at this stage.
Kyle spoke this time. “The Sanctum are very good at making Hives think they are under attack from countless assailants. They are fast, deadly, and kill quickly.”
My eyes darted around as I tried to take in both of the males in the front. “So we don’t know if the attack is just the Sanctum, or if there is another Hive involved as well?” All this double-talk was confusing.
Ryder’s lips curled up a little. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, our goals remain the same – rescue Jayden, get him and Charlie to safety, and then go back for the Quorum. That’s the order of business.”
I saw more than one head nod, and I was okay with that. I wasn’t going to be much use against elite mercenaries. The gates of the Hive came into view and we were all distracted. Driving in at night like this always gave me the creeps. It reminded me of that night a year ago – when everything changed.