Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (14 page)

Another blonde popped up in front of me, and thankfully this time she wasn’t covered in her own vomit.

“Tessa!” I threw my arms around her and pulled her close. Our hug lasted almost as long as with my mother. The boys sidled around us, following my mom into the kitchen area. Tessa and I remained locked together.

“I’m sorry I showed up like a hot mess at the Hive,” she mumbled against my shoulder. “I just get really depressed some days. I can’t cope with you being gone, with the loneliness. Even Blake … like today, he can’t be here because of the sun. I’m always on the outside of your lives.”

I gave her an extra squeeze. “You know the saying, babe: the grass is always greener on the other side. You have serious FOMO, but there’s nothing you need to fear you’re missing out on. The Hive is dark and deadly.”

The look on her face told me she was tuning me out again. I forced myself not to bitch-slap her. Despite the fact that I was so happy to see her, she was also pissing me off a lot lately with this moronic stubbornness of wanting to become a stupid vampire.

Pretending the tension between us wasn’t there, she flashed me a smile and linked her arm through mine. Her face was only lightly made up today and she looked pretty, fresh-faced, and healthy. “So Blake is meeting with the Quorum again tonight. Apparently they have conferred with other Quorums, and the international vampire council. They’re the ones who keep track of the world numbers or something. We should have a decision in the next week.”

My mouth dropped open. “Tessa!”

She elbowed me sharply. “Shh, don’t ruin this day. Your mom and I have been planning it for a week.”

I gave an exasperated sigh. The pissed-off was growing, but I didn’t bother to argue with her again. There was almost a hundred percent certainty they would deny the request. It was next to impossible to change humans any longer. The human-vampire truce was on shaky grounds, and we didn’t need more bad publicity, especially with the newly-turned child. Actually, if anything good could come out of that horrible happening, it was that Blake’s odds of being granted permission to turn Tessa were probably now at minus one.

I relaxed as we crossed through the sunny living room and into the open-plan dining area which bordered the kitchen. The extension on the dark wooden table was open, and extra chairs had been brought in. There were already settings out, ten of them by my count, delicate white china which we had inherited from my grandparents. They had passed on ten years ago, but it was almost as if they were here with us when we used their stuff. It wasn’t just the china. Everything in this room held a memory for me. It was home.

My mom wasn’t wealthy like Tessa’s, but we’d always done okay. I loved our furniture, mostly dark wood and antique, rich with age and history. Crossing into the white and turquoise country-style kitchen, topped off by dark timber bench tops, I ground to a halt, before peals of laughter ripped from me.

Holy shit
. The sexy six were cooking.

The enforcers were stationed around the kitchen, their hulking forms making the room look positively tiny. Each of them was wearing a frilly and feminine lace apron and my mom had them hard at work with food prep.

I couldn’t stop staring. Ryder and Sam especially had me in hysterics. Both of them looked absolutely lost for words, as if they couldn’t even understand how my petite mother managed to get them into this position. Still, I was happy to see that each of them were making the best of it, Ryder kneading bread, Sam snapping the ends off of green beans. Markus had even started to sing, his Scottish brogue deepening as he basted the turkey. I wonder if he’d been informed that that amazing liquid was a secret concoction passed down from Grandma May. Knowing my mom, he definitely had been.

Jared flashed me a white-toothed smile; he was on cranberry sauce duties, which we made from scratch in this household. Oliver was slicing cheeses, and Jayden stood at his side, sampling the fare and giving orders, sticking to what he was good at.

And my mom, who was totally in her element, was dashing between all of them, giving instructions.

“Is this really happening?” Tessa’s voice was a bubble of amusement. “Or did we just wander into an alternate universe?”

“Let’s hope it’s an alternate universe and we can expect this room filled with sexy man cooks in frilly aprons to stick around,” I murmured. I turned to her and waggled my eyebrows up and down.

We both burst out laughing then, and I was so distracted that I never even noticed Ryder duck around the kitchen island, until he was right in front of me. He looked hot as hell, even with the streak of flour on his cheek and the pink and lavender frilly apron around his waist.

“You’re not laughing at me are you, Charlene?”

Ugh. No doubt he was taking great pleasure in using my full name. He knew how much it grated on my nerves.

Of course I’d give him no satisfaction by reacting. I smiled. “Lace really suits you. I think you should think about incorporating it into the enforcer unif—”

Quick as a flash he lightly palmed my face with flour. My mouth dropped open—damn, no doubt he’d been waiting for the perfect moment to do that. Before he could coat me any further, I quickly tackled him, laughing as he still somehow managed to rub more on my face.

Suddenly Mom was standing over us with a huge grin. “So he’s the one? I was trying to figure out which one of these good looking fellas had caught my daughter’s attention.”

Ryder scrambled to pull me upright, and wiped his palms on his apron.

“It’s nice to officially meet you, ma’am. I’m Ryder Angelson.”

Whoa! Ryder had a last name? Ash and vamps tended to just stick with first names, most of them shedding that last formality of their human persona. I’d never even thought to ask him for a full name.

My mother gave me an approving look. “A boy with manners, I like it. You can call me Jo.” She shook his hand. I could tell immediately that she wasn’t just saying the words, she really did like Ryder. My mom was a great judge of character; she’d already looked past the lead enforcer’s outer persona of tall, dark, and deadly to see the man beneath. Glancing between my mom, Ryder, and around the rest of the kitchen, my heart filled with enough joy to last a lifetime.
      

Thanksgiving was beyond perfect; I didn’t want it to end. We ate until we were stuffed to the brim. Everything tasted so good. On top of the food, it was the atmosphere which made it so special—relaxed and peaceful. It felt like the last few months of blood, murder, and drama in the Hive had never happened.

The enforcers made a few halfhearted efforts to duck back and forth to the Hive, but most of them spent their time snacking and napping lazily on the couch. A few of us played board games with my mom. Can I just say that Jayden is a competitive bastard—and he cheats.

Eventually, though, as the day faded out to night, and with the blood thirst gnawing at the back of my throat, we said our goodbyes. Ryder pretty much had to pry me from Tessa and my mom’s arms. It was only the knowledge that I couldn’t drag them into my shitty life that forced me to leave.

As we piled into the Humvees and drove out of my neighborhood, I looked back at my house, my heart and throat aching as I fought my tears. That life was gone. I guess I just needed to come to terms with it. A strong hand squeezed my thigh.

“It was a good day,” Ryder told me, and I could tell he was trying to ease some of my heartache. “Keep those memories safe, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that’s not the last holiday you spend with them.”

I managed to smile, before turning away to lock my burning eye on the world outside. I didn’t want to cry. I’d probably never stop if I started. Ryder pulled us onto the freeway and almost instantly the car sped up—like in a pedal to the metal way. I swung my head back around to see what was happening. Ryder’s face was hard now, furrows along his brow as his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.

“Black van. Three cars back,” Kyle said from the back seat.

Ryder nodded. “I see it. Radio the boys.”

Oh shit. What now? Not on Thanksgiving. Did these people have no patriotic pride?

Sam leaned forward, close to my ear. “Buckle up, Charlie.”

My heart began to pump harder, fear burning through my body.

“Who is it?” I asked as I clicked my seat belt on.

Ryder was still moving fast, far too quickly to be safe on the roads, especially as we swerved in and out of traffic.

Kyle’s voice came from the back seat. “Sam’s running plates but nothing is coming up. Looks like humans though. My guess is that it’s a little bit of payback for our recent financial do-gooding.”

Deliverance
. Those bastards had almost killed my boyfriend and now they were ruining Thanksgiving. I popped open the glove box and grabbed the gun Markus had been training me with.

Ryder gave me a side look and grinned. I think the boy liked me when I got all pissed and weaponed up.

“Hold on,” he said as he jerked the car to the right, crossing over three lanes and exiting on Murray street.

Screeching tires behind us indicated the Deliverance truck had managed to stay right on our ass. Our other Humvee, with Jayden, Oliver, and Jared inside, slotted themselves in behind the van.

“Can we call the human police? Wouldn’t they want to know these maniacs are doing this?” I was having flashbacks of a bleeding Markus and nearly dead Ryder. I didn’t ever want to relive that.

Kyle actually chuckled, before sobering a bit. “Maybe before our evil bosses stole and infected a twelve-year-old girl.”

Shit. Good point.

I was watching the rearview mirror and my stomach dropped when the van’s sunroof opened and a guy holding a large machine gun popped up.

“Ryder!”

“I see it! Hold on!”

Static sounded from behind me and I heard Kyle radio across to the other car. “Van sandwich,” he said.

Sam was at my ear again. “Brace yourself, Charlie.”

I had a split second to reach for the “oh shit” bar before Ryder slammed on the brakes. The Deliverance van’s brakes squealed and I saw the entire vehicle wobble as they tried to avoid us, but they’d been way too close. The crash was loud and hard, and I was thrown forward against my belt. At the same time, I heard a final gunning of an engine and another crash and jolt as the second Hummer smashed into the van, pinning it between the two of our vehicles.

Without skipping a beat, Ryder slammed his foot down again, our tires spinning for a second before there was a wrenching of metal on metal and we were free. A quick glance back told me that Jayden’s car had also managed to reverse out of the crash, and was now following us. I could see the slight crumple to the front of their Hummer but nothing too crazy. Okay, clearly these vehicles were army-spec reinforced, because that had been a hard hit.

Wanting to see the Deliverance van better, I tried to turn my head all the way around, wincing at the twinge in my neck. I twisted around far enough to see that the van was completely crushed and clearly undrivable. Humans were stumbling out of it.

My attention was back in the car then as Ryder reached out and gently touched my lip. “Trust me, that hurt worse for them. You okay?” As he pulled back I looked down at his thumb to see a little blood. I must have bitten my lip by accident, something which tends to happen when you go from eighty miles an hour to a dead stop.

As the metallic and sort of sweet scent of my blood filled the car, Ryder’s eyes began to slightly pulse—silver to black—the way the vampires’ did when they couldn’t resist my blood. It had been a while since anyone vamped out on me. The enforcers especially were used to my unicorn blood now.
I was pretty sure there was more than blood on Ryder’s mind right then, though.

“Happy Thanksgiving…” Kyle’s sarcasm distracted us from the surge of adrenalin, bloodlust, and attraction rocketing between Ryder and me.

Before I could come up with a sarcastic reply, Ryder was slamming on the brakes again. For fuc—what now?

A roadblock, about ten yards away from our vehicle.
Shit
. Two blacked-out Chevy Tahoe’s were parked sideways, with about seven people crouched and standing around them. That first glance was enough to tell me that these people were very different from the douchebags following us, but still human.

Their clothing reminded me of some sort of defense force or military uniform, but of the hardcore variety. Their attention was locked on us, and even as we gave them hard stares back, they didn’t flinch at the full convoy of ash enforcers. They remained serious-faced, weapons in hand.

Yep, the badass vibe was totally making sense; they were definitely some sort of special forces. Based on my many hours of television watching, they looked a hell of a lot like SWAT, with face shields and all.

As Jayden’s car screeched up to halt beside us, I pulled my gaze from the GI Joe humans across from us, and turned to Ryder. I was opening my mouth to suggest we U-turn and head back past Deliverance, when the enforcer’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror. It was rare to see anything but confidence and lethalness cross his face, but in the moment I swear there was a flash of fear and uncertainty.

It was only there for a second, that minor creasing of his brows, shadowing in his eyes, but it had been there for a reason. Swallowing hard, I turned in my seat.

Frickity frack, we were toast. Barreling down the road were six black vans, exact replicas of the Deliverance van we’d just trashed. One held some crazy-ass firepower on top, looking like a freaking war machine ready to kill thousands.

I spun to the guys, ready to start beating a plan out of someone. We might be in a bulletproof Humvee, but something told me the Bible freaks had learned a lot from our last attack. Hence the big guns, which were no doubt
armor piercing.

Jittering in my seat, I managed to halt my tirade of spewing panic as I noticed Ryder was already busy. He was leaned forward in his seat, and there was no fear on his face now, just a calculating expression. I followed the line of sight and found myself staring at one of the SWAT men. The massive dude stood way out in front and wore authority like no one’s business. Definitely some sort of leader. He was tall, built like a truck, and had piercing blue eyes.