Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (17 page)

He didn’t flinch, didn’t fight. He looked desperate. “I love her.”

“Where is she?” The words sounded inhuman as they left my throat.

“Medical wing, room five.” Blake was crying, as I pushed him to the ground and took off.

The sound of the two enforcers’ footsteps close behind gave me strength. If the vampires thought they could take my best friend’s life, they were about to learn just how deadly I could be. I would burn this entire Hive to the ground before I let one undead asshole touch Tessa.

I kicked open the medical wing doors, hitting a nurse, who shrieked. Ignoring her, I bolted for room five. The frosted glass door was half open, and the second I saw the pale, emaciated form of my best friend limp in the bed, an animalistic wail ripped from my throat.

The vampire doctor tending to her turned to me, startled. “No ash allowed!” Same old story as the last time we’d been here. I felt a sick sense of satisfaction as Sam whipped out his gun, holding it to the vamp’s head. Asshole backed right off then.

“What’s happening to her?” I shouted at him as a few other medical staff crowded in behind us. Ryder was doing his best to use his bulk to hold them off. I couldn’t focus on anything but my best friend though—or, well, what was left of her. At that moment Tessa wasn’t Tessa. She was a shell of a human, a sack of pale skin with dead, white hair. Oh my God.

The doctor seemed annoyed with my question. “She was changed with permission. I have all of the proper signed forms. Her body is fighting the virus too aggressively and it’s killing her.” He shrugged. “It happens.”

Tears spilled onto my cheeks. “No! No! We have to save her. That’s my best friend.”

A flash of something crossed the doctor’s features. Surprisingly enough, it seemed like sympathy. “I have never understood why anyone would willingly want the virus. It’s dangerous. Many more humans die than become vampire.”

Sam moved to the side as I stumbled towards the doctor. “Does she need more blood? Antibiotics? What can we do?”

Because if he didn’t give me an answer in five seconds I was saving her with my blood and outing myself to this entire Hive. I could see now that over a dozen medical officials had crowded the doorway, watching, one of whom I recognized as a Quorum member—too many here to hide what I was, but for Tessa I would do it in a heartbeat.

The doctor shrugged again, and if the POS did it one more time, I was going to punch him in the throat. “There is an experimental vampire plasma that works in twenty percent of cases like these.”

Twenty percent wasn’t good enough. Tessa’s life was worth more than mine. I extended my arm. “Use my blood, it’s the—” Before I could say “cure,” Sam’s gun came out of nowhere and cracked me on the back of my head and blackness took me.

The moment consciousness returned, a sense of panic surged in strong waves through my body. I could feel the rapid beat of my heart, the pulsing of blood in my veins, but I didn’t remember why that was—for the first few moments anyway. Then all of reality came flooding back, and despite a raging headache and an incessant thirst, I forced my heavy eyelids open and wrenched my body up.

“Tessa!” My words were supposed to be strong, angry. The panicked rage inside of me needed a place to go. But my dry throat produced nothing more than a rasp of my best friend’s name.

I looked around, finding two enforcers up against the wall of my room in the hospital wing. No Ryder though. Kyle and Oliver were the stooges today.

I swung my legs off the side of the bed, relieved to see I was still fully dressed and didn’t appear to be hooked up to any machines.

“Where the fuck is my best friend?” My voice gained strength as I stalked forward, ignoring my blood hunger. Although, if someone didn’t start talking soon, I was going to let the red haze consume my mind.

Kyle straightened, taking a step toward me. As he stopped inches away, I flashed back to the hours we had sat and prayed here together when Ryder was injured. It reminded me there was a bond between us, and I did not want to hurt him.

“She’s okay, Charlie. They gave her the vampire plasma and it counteracted some of the virus long enough for her cells to start the transformation. Ryder and Jared stayed behind to make sure no one screwed anything up.”

My relief allowed some of the hot rage to die down. Of course that made way for the true sorrow. I turned to the boys. “How was this permitted? The Quorum rarely allows for new vampires, and with the young girl being turned…”

I rubbed at my temples, trying to relieve the pounding ache. I understood why Sam had hit me. I’d almost outed myself to every vamp in that room, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still painful.

Kyle’s golden features hardened. “Sam and Markus are investigating now, but we think that maybe this was allowed because of you. Somehow the vamps know how important Tessa is to you, and now they have her exactly where they want.”

Shit! I had never even thought about that, always just assuming and hoping that the normal rejections would happen with Blake’s request.

Blake! “I’m ripping that bastard’s throat out. What the hell was Blake thinking? He almost killed her.”

The rage was back. I didn’t even care that he said he loved her, you don’t do things like that to people you love. Blake was a vampire. He should know that it’s not all perfect nighttime strolls and blood milkshakes. His emotions had blinded him and he put his own needs before Tessa’s. Not good enough for me, and not good enough for my BFF.

No one tried to stop me as I stormed from the room. In the hallway I glanced around, trying to orient myself. I’d been spending enough time here lately that this place was becoming way too familiar. I was pretty sure I was at the far end from where Tessa had been. Ryder probably stashed me there in the chaos and told the boys to keep an eye on me. By the time I made it to room five again, Kyle and Oliver were right on my heels. Both of them had their hands resting close to their guns.

“Is there something else I need to know?” My words were hard. I was at the limit of my niceness today.

Kyle’s eyes flicked to Oliver for a second, and I was just about to scream some more when they both met my flinty gaze.

“The vampires want to test your blood again. They want to know why you think your blood would help Tessa when the doctor clearly said they needed vampire plasma, not ash.” Kyle sounded sympathetic and a little pissed on my behalf as he explained.

Shit. Damn. Shit.

Okay, I totally didn’t regret trying to save my best friend. I would have cut my arm off if that was what it took. Though now that she was going to survive all on her own, all I had done was raise suspicions about my blood and cast attention back on me and the enforcers.

“Is it safe for me to walk into this room?” The hallway was empty. If we had to run, I could do it, but we’d be grabbing Tessa and bringing her too.

Oliver nodded, lowering his voice. “So far there were just some comments, but Ryder shut them down pretty fast. Hopefully once the excitement dies off, they’ll forget about your little slip.”

Sure, because that sort of luck just happened for me. Sucking in a deep breath, I clicked the door open and stepped inside. The room was a lot emptier now, just a few nurses scattered around. Ryder and Jared were standing vigil either side of Tessa’s bed, and it kind of warmed my heart to see how much they cared, how much diligence they were putting into her safety. That was for me. I knew without any doubt the boys thought of me as one of their team now, and since I loved Tessa, they protected her for me.

I jerked as I realized Lucas was also in the room. He was sans his usual white trench coat, wearing just a dark shirt and slacks. I almost hadn’t recognized him. He rose from his chair and crossed to my side.

“Charlie, I’m so sorry about your friend. I tried to dissuade Blake, but he … he couldn’t see the situation clearly. I voted against it on our council, but was in the minority.”

His silver eyes were swirling at me and I felt he was trying to tell me so much more than what those few words were saying. Was this entire freaking Hive bugged?

“I thought it was very rare for the council to approve something like this. I was sort of wondering why they jumped on board?” My voice was low and casual. There were way too many witnesses around for me to lose my shit like I wanted to. We were laying low now apparently. I knew what that actually meant: more days of being locked in the damn Hive.

“I don’t know for sure. There must be something in the files.”

Again, Lucas was telling me shit with just his eyes, and again I was having trouble speaking silver swirl. He dropped his head and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll leave you in the capable hands of your enforcers.” As he pulled back, I heard the barest of whispers: “Be prepared to run.”

I blinked a few times as he left in a swirl of vampire energy. Pulling myself together as best I could, I crossed to where the four guys were waiting. As far as I could tell, Lucas was telling me the Quorum was acting very out of character, and that he was worried for my safety, which meant time was running out for us to decide what to do. My eyes fell on Tessa, who thankfully was back to looking like my beautiful bestie … more beautiful actually, if that was even possible. The virus was working through her body, making her strong and immortal—not to mention evil and bloodsucking. Shit. Forget first world problems, we now had Hive world problems.

Her timing really couldn’t have been worse. These Quorum problems were going to be tenfold once she woke up. Tessa was about to find herself right in the midst of vamp politics. And possibly a war.

When I reached Ryder, I found myself snuggling into his side. “Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything, but as his warm hand ran across my lower back in a comforting gesture, I realized how much he meant to me, how far he’d wiggled into my life and my heart. He was the first man I’d been comfortable with since my attack, and I was the first woman he’d cared for since his fiancée. Were we perfect? Nope, but together I was hoping we would find something perfect to hold on to in all this chaos.

“How long will she be unconscious for?” I asked, not having a clue how long it had even been since I was knocked out by Sam.

“It generally takes a full day for the transformation once it has started.” Jared’s accent was strong at the moment, which usually meant he was upset. “Since the plasma, which was four hours ago, she’s already well into the change. She’ll be screaming for blood in another four or so hours.”

Okay, so that meant we had time to get to the roof for a team meeting. Ryder must have seen the determination in my eyes, and somehow knew what I wanted. “Jared, you okay to stay here and keep an eye on Tessa while the rest of us check in with the enforcers?”

The Australian nodded once, before settling into the chair which Lucas had just vacated. I leaned down and kissed the smooth, porcelain cheek of the unconscious girl in the bed. “I’ll be back for you soon, Tess,” I whispered, turning to exit with the boys.

No one spoke as we made our way to the elevators, and the silence remained even after we reached the rooftop. It was daylight again, which was a relief; it felt as if the sun was my friend now, the big baddie that kept the vampires away.

Ryder led the way, his stride strong, face locked in the pissed-off range of emotions. He must have had this already planned, because as we rounded the corner, out of the doorway line-of-sight, Markus and Sam came into view. They were camped out, laptops in front of them, a cooler at their side.

My dry mouth increased then, and I sensed eyes on me as I pretty much drooled. Markus had the lid up and bottle in his hand before I even made it to his side.

“Thought you might be thirsty. Grabbed you some O-negative.” The Scottish enforcer was as serious as I’d ever seen him, and his accent was strong. Emotions deepened their accents, and right now we were at our emotional peak.

“Sorry about … your head.” Sam’s low words sounded quite emotional too, for him anyway.

I waved. “All good. I know why you did it. But if Tessa hadn’t made it, you and I would be having a completely different conversation.”

Sam just gave me a single nod, as if to say he’d have been okay with that too. I knew that even at the time, in the heat of that highly emotional moment, he’d weighed up the risks and had decided my life was worth more than hers—which was sweet, but not his call to make.

I wasted no more time as the burn in my gums signaled my fangs descending, and as they pierced the top of the bottle I chugged down the blood; relief to my parched throat and mouth was instant. It annoyed me that we were so reliant on this now. Sure, even as a human I’d needed water and food, but for the most part I could get that from anywhere. We would never easily find enough blood for us all to leave. The Hive had us trapped.

Wiping my mouth, I discarded the empty bottle, reaching for another. “How much blood will we need if we run? It would have to be what … a pint a day, each?” I expressed my concerns to the enforcers, shifting the icy bottle. “Lucas pretty much just told me that the Quorum is acting strange and we need to be ready to run, but how the hell can we?” My brows pinched together as the pure enormity of the situation crashed into me. I couldn’t drag the boys into this.

“Charlie, get that damn look off your face.” Ryder towered over me; his eyes were almost pure silver. “We will have no sacrifices, no martyrs, and no heroes running off on their own.”

I jabbed my finger at him. “Get out of my head. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe, and being around me is not safe.”

Sam stood then, and because he was such a presence—he had badass down almost as well as Ryder—we all turned and stared at him.

“I have a plan. You need to trust me.”

He sat back down then, and I gave Ryder the side-eye. What the eff?

“You have twenty humans willing to travel with us to a safe place and go on a rotation of donating blood?” I asked.

The silent enforcer was up to something and “trust me” was alien to my controlling take-charge personality.

Sam didn’t answer me. He just looked at Ryder. Something passed between them, something without words. What was with all these people speaking with no more than a few exchanged looks. Words, use them. They existed for a reason.