Ash(70)

Remembering was easier now, although it still churned my stomach and sat bile at the base of my throat. I’d been out partying with Tessa, and we’d been separated on the street. Before I knew what had happened, I was grabbed by two ash. One of them punched me in the face, and by the time I managed to pull myself together I was in behind the security fence.

They were like rabid dogs, pawing at me, trying to tear my clothes away, and I had been helpless, unable to fight, unable to even scream for help as one of them had his hand firmly clamped over my mouth.

I cut off the thoughts. I didn’t dwell on that night. I’d been saved. The two ash had been yanked off me by some guy, who then ripped their heads right from their shoulders. I didn’t know who had saved me, I only got brief glimpses of him, but he sort of reminded me of a blond Viking, with braids and feathers and shit in his hair. Probably I’d imagined that part or something, because I’d never seen a single member of the Hive who came close to his description.

My biggest regret was that I hadn’t stuck around and thanked him. All I’d thought of was escape. I dragged myself out of the compound and called my mom to get me. I’d been beat up, scratched, bruised, and bloodied. But I had not been raped or fed on, and I counted myself lucky. Other human women were not usually so lucky when it came to the ash.

That was why I’d hated ash, right up until the moment I became one. Now I realized it was wrong to hate an entire race just because of a few bad souls. Just like with humans, there were good and bad in the Hive. I could see that now, and I was more than ready to protect my newfound home and family. I was prepared to embrace my ash side and kick some ass.





Chapter 10





Ryder was grim-faced as he stared out of his window, seeming to be lost in thought. Kyle pulled the Humvee in behind some trees, on the outer perimeter of the Hive fence. Blue lights and sirens were flickering around, casting everyone’s faces in a ghostly shadowing. Our Hive was in lockdown, standard operating procedure in these situations. Ryder leaned down and pulled a duffle bag out from under the seat. He rifled through for a moment, retrieving two pairs of hand suction cups. I recognized them from the training room.

“Sam, Markus, you scale the outside windows and hang outside of Charlie’s apartment.”

He tossed them the suction cups. Holy shit, like seriously? They were going to scale the thirty-three floors to my apartment with only a suction cup to keep them from falling? Before I could express both my worry and incredulity of this, the boys had already slipped from the Humvee and taken off into the dark of night. I glimpsed them scaling the high razor wire wall like it was no big deal. Then they were gone.

Ryder looked at Kyle. “You and Jared create a big-ass distraction. Drive the Humvee into the lobby for all I care, just make sure all eyes and cameras are on you.”

“No worries, mate.” The surfer dude Aussie looked completely relaxed, like he’d just agreed to ride some gnarly waves, not crash his car into a building.

Ryder then turned to Oliver and I. “Oliver, you’re with me and Charlie. We’ll head to her apartment, where I’m almost certain the Sanctum will be waiting for us, with Jayden as a hostage.”

Oliver clenched his teeth and nodded. My stomach dropped. No, no, no, no! Jayden better be okay, or mercenaries or not I was killing myself some ash tonight.

“I’m coming with you?” I hadn’t expected him to allow that so easily.

Ryder’s face was scary warrior right now. I got legit chills. “You, Charlie, are my shadow. Where I walk, you walk. If I tell you to get down, you get down. If I am not satisfied that you are listening to me, I will knock you out and stuff you in a closet. Do you understand?”

Damn. Ryder didn’t fuck around. “Glue myself to your ass – got it!”

He cracked a hint of a smile then and handed me a sleek black pistol. “I’m told you know how to use one of these.” He glared at Kyle, who tried to hide a smirk. No guns were used in the culling, but subduing the ash on that call last week hadn’t been the first time I’d fired a gun. After my attack I took defense classes, and right now the cool weight of it in my hand was oddly comforting.

Ryder took a deep breath, rolling his head side to side, “Oliver, if after we get in the apartment I say to get Jayden and Charlie out of there…”

Oliver nodded. “I get them out.”

Ryder seemed satisfied. “Let’s do this.” He picked up the CB radio. It was time to let them know we were coming in. Of course, they didn’t know that most of us wouldn’t be coming in the front door. “Core enforcer team inbound, ETA sixty seconds.”