Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (21 page)

Life recently was all about kicking Charlie in the teeth. Tessa was a vampire, Mom was in hiding with my Viking father, and the Hive was going to try to kill me soon. Pretty sure I needed to find someone to trade destinies with. Mine was faulty.

Ryder’s arms closed around me and all of sudden I was a mess of tears again. What was with all the waterworks tonight?

“I’m not tough,” I wailed, as I gripped his shirt in both of my hands. “I don’t want to handle this shit. I want to go home, build a nice fort out of blankets, and crawl into it with a good book.”

“Charlie can read?” I heard Kyle mutter. “Swear to God, when I asked her to flick through the enforcer handbook she threw it in my face.”

Ryder’s arms tightened around me and I could feel his chest shaking with laughter. Holy shit. Here I was pouring out my worries and fears and the assholes were laughing at me. I leaned back and punched him clean into his hard chest.
Ouch.
Okay, that was not supposed to hurt me so much.

The silver in Ryder’s eyes was dancing as he cupped my face with both hands. “Charlie, sweetheart, you are tougher than you think. And you’re not alone … never alone. We can do this together, all of us. Whatever the Hive throws at us, we’ll deal with.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “You’ve changed your tune. Usually you’re all doom and gloom.”

He cracked a broad smile and white teeth dazzled me. “You bring out the worst of my protective instincts, but I’m working on that. I’m going to focus on you as an equal member of my team. The reason my core enforcers work so well is that we are a single unit, we have each other’s backs. Complete trust. You can’t handle this shit alone, but together we can handle anything.”

Complete Trust. Hah! Except for our little Sam. Keeping his secrets.

The dark, mysterious enforcer met my squinty eyes and gave me a nod. “Soon,” he mouthed at me, and blinking a few times in shock I returned that nod. Seems he was going to finally let us in.

Turning around, I let my gaze linger on the path that Carter and my mom had just taken through the park. I let out an exaggerated sigh. “At least I know she’s going to be out of Portland, no longer available for any of the Charlie haters to use as a weapon against me.”

There were nods all around. It was one of the few positive pieces of information we had received in the past few weeks. Kyle started ushering us out of the area then, no more time to linger. There were only a few hours till dawn and we had shit to do. Plus, I still had to try and find my brainwashed, pod-person bestie tonight.

As soon as we exited the Humvee in the garage back at the Hive, my stomach dropped. The Quorum was standing inside, clearly waiting for us. I scanned across their group but Lucas was not there. Shit! My hand automatically went to my gun, but Ryder nudged me.

“Is there a problem?” he asked them, sounding completely unconcerned.

Allistair, aka fugly, sneered, holding out a hand, palm open. “You’re all under investigation. Please hand in your badges. You’re suspended from leaving the Hive until further notice.”

Sam’s eyes were blazing with rage. Kyle was keeping a poker face. And Ryder’s jaw was just slightly clenched as he pulled his card from his pocket.

The lead enforcer’s tone was low and deadly. “Over thirty years of service and this is how you treat me?”

A few of the Quorum members’ faces fell at Ryder’s remark, but Allistair shrugged. “If you could take simple orders this wouldn’t be happening, but ever since you started fucking Charlie you’ve changed.”

The words had barely left Allistair’s mouth before Ryder’s right arm came out of nowhere, connecting with the vampire’s jaw. The crack of shattering bone ricocheted off the cement garage walls.

Ryder moved forward to pulverize him further, but two Quorum members zoomed into action, latching onto him, pulling his arms back and twisting them until near breaking point. Sam and Kyle were already moving to intervene, but Ryder shook his head.

“Throw him in the pit!” one of the Quorum members shouted.

Shit!

“Ryder!” I stepped forward, but he just nailed me with a hard look. His lips didn’t move but his eyes said everything. The last thing we needed was all of us in the pit.

Allistair stood, holding what looked like a completely shattered jaw in one hand, and stalked over to Sam. He held out his free hand.

“Give me your laptop! Now!” His shout was garbled but understandable and it pleased me to see he was wincing in pain.

The aforementioned laptop was tucked under Sam’s arm. “Sure thing, boss,” he said.

In a move so fast I doubt most would have noticed or heard, Sam tilted his head over the side of the device and murmured, “Midnight.”

I wondered for a second if I’d even heard it, but knew there had to be a reason the tech-inclined enforcer would hand over that computer so casually.

The Quorum members took an extended second to bestow us with dirty looks, and I resisted the urge to flip them all off. With a swish, they left then, taking off with the computer, Ryder, and our access cards. My eyes remained locked on their retreating backs, and I noticed they all shifted around Ryder, keeping him deep in the center of the group—no way to snag him out of their evil grasps.

My heart was racing. How had everything gone downhill so quickly? Seriously, WTAF just happened?

“Sam, your laptop,” I whispered, anything to take my mind off Ryder.

He dropped a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Has just been wiped of all information.”

Well, hot damn. I’d been right about “midnight.” Had to hand it to the silent enforcer, he was shaping up to be the smartest one of an already elite squad of dudes.

Kyle let out a muffled shout, his fists clenched as he focused on the doorway they had just taken Ryder through. “They’re going to beat the shit out of him for what he did to Allistair.”

My stomach dropped. I hadn’t thought of that. I assumed he’d just be locked up for a while so they could prove their dominance.

Sam moved into action then, striding across the garage. “This moves up our timeline, Charlie. Talk to Tessa soon.”

I’d forgotten all about my bestie, but Sam was totally right. I had to talk to her ASAP because I needed to retrieve my boyfriend and my new ash family, and then get us all out of this hellhole.

After reaching my apartment, we walked in to find Oliver, Markus, Jared, and Jayden sitting in the living room, playing cards and waiting for us.

Oliver stood. “Where were you guys? The Quorum put us on suspension, took our badges.”

Kyle growled, “Us too, and Ryder is in the pit.”

Jared let a few interesting cusswords fly. Wow! Australians had seriously dirty mouths. Definitely had to visit there one day.

Jayden strode across to me. “Hey, girl. While you were gone Tessa came looking for you and she said they’ve closed off the roof track for ‘repairs.’” He finger quoted around the last word.

Those assholes. Goddamn vampires were shutting off any avenue we had for privacy. They were tightening the net around us and we were running out of time to do anything about it.

“I really need to see Tessa,” I said, all casual-like. I did not want the vampires to hear my desperation.

My eyes met Jayden’s, pleading with him. Come on, you clever BAFF, think of something.

A spark lit up Jayden’s eyes. The black blazed at me and his eyebrows were practically at his hairline. “Alright, I need to get ready for my shift at the feeding center. I wonder if Tessa will start feeding from humans soon.” He wiggled those eyebrows at me a few times.

Yes! That’s it.

“She probably will. She’s always loved all things vampire and can’t wait to suck on a human. Speaking of … when’s my appointment today?”

Okay, so I didn’t really have enough time to be smooth.

Jayden grinned at me. Damn guy loved this playacting shit. “In two hours.”

I returned that grin. Jayden would get Tessa to meet me in our feeding room in two hours. It was time to start praying she would agree to leave with me.

I sat in room number seven bopping my feet. Jayden had called to tell Tessa that her scheduled feeder was here, so now it was just a wait to see if she’d show up. Kyle and Oliver were standing guard outside of the feeding center, monitoring who was entering but trying not to be obvious about it. As the door handle jiggled I shot to my feet, throat tightening in anticipation.

The door swung open, revealing my bestie. She was all red lipstick and smiles. She looked healthy, perfect, and happy, happier than I’d seen her in a long time. To match the lipstick, she had on a red corset, teamed with skinny jeans and red peek-a-boo pumps. She was a knockout.

“Tess!” I crashed into her. “I’m so sorry I had to run off. My mom was in trouble.”

She pulled away. “Is Jo okay?”

I nodded, before quickly giving her the cover story, in case there were listening devices in here too. “Yeah, she wasn’t at work when I got there. I finally got a hold of her and she was halfway to California. She’s decided to head to the beach for a little holiday. Get some sun before winter hits in full force.”

“Awesome!” Tessa said, and already I could see my mom was forgotten as she bounced and grinned at me. And why was she holding her hands behind her back like that?

“Did you drink an energy drink again?” I asked in a joking way. “You know that stuff makes you annoyingly happy.” There was no way her weird behavior was about an overdose of caffeine. Not to mention she wouldn’t want to drink anything but blood now.

Tessa practically shrieked: “I’m engaged!”

She shoved her left hand in my face to reveal a huge diamond rock.

“Oh my God, Charlie, it was so romantic. I was getting a manicure at this shop at 2 am. Did you know they open the shops up for the vampires at night and we’re allowed to shop and all of that?”

My mouth was hanging open and I could only gape at the huge diamond on her hand. “Tessa! I … he … you’re…”

She squealed, seeming to take my stuttering as some sort of excited statement. “So, as I was saying, I was getting the manicure with Nadine, this new vamp friend of mine, and suddenly Blake hands the manicurist something and says to make sure to finish my manicure with this. I almost died when the lady put the ring on my finger. I knew immediately the diamond was at least three carats. Three, Charlie! Then Blake got down on one knee and proposed!”

No, no, no. “Tessa!” I was seriously pissed. It was as if she’d lost her mind, like literally pulverized the thing when she decided to jump into bed with Blake. “You can’t get engaged. You’re twenty-one years old and this guy nearly killed you changing you into a vampire freak-show.”

Tessa’s face hardened. “Why are you being such a bitch, Charlie? Seriously, you’re just jealous! Your guy took forever to even kiss you and you’re jealous that Blake isn’t afraid of commitment.”

I totally wanted to club her over the head and hide her in a suitcase under my bed until we could get the hell out of here, but she could, and probably would, kick my ass.

I had to change tactics, because my bitching crazily at her was not working.

“Okay … this is coming out wrong, Tess.” I leaned in closer and murmured my next few words. “My life is in danger and I can’t really give specifics, but I need to tell you something.”

Her face had softened a little. Taking this as an encouragement I leaned right up close to her ear.

“I’m leaving the Hive, and if you want to keep our family together, like you always proclaimed when you talked of being turned, you’re going to have to come with me.” I sucked in a deep breath. “If I don’t leave soon, I’m dead.”

As I pulled back, her face showed genuine concern. “Charlie what’s going on? Blake knows people. He can help you.”

I gritted my teeth. “No one can help me. You don’t understand everything and...” I pointed my finger to the ceiling and swung it around in a circle. Tessa’s eyes rose and she followed my gaze around the room. I wasn’t sure she fully understood what I was trying to tell her about us being spied on, but she didn’t push me further. She gave a sigh and looked at her new shiny ring.

There were a few tense moments. I wanted to reach out and shake an answer out of her. What was she even thinking about here? Finally she lifted those silver eyes and gave me a sad look.

“I’m going to stay here. Blake will take care of me.”

My heart split in two and tears filled my eyes. I had officially been replaced. She would rather be with Blake instead of going with me.

I gave it one last shot. “Think about it for another minute. Not only do I want us to be together, I can’t leave you here knowing they might use you to get to me,”

Tessa shook her head. “Charlie, I’m not going anywhere and neither are you. We’ll figure this out. I love it here. I feel like I finally belong.”

My chest began to shake with emotion. “I love you,” I managed to say, before turning into a puddle of tears. Somehow I made it out of the door and into the hallway.

“Charlie!” Tessa yelled, but I ran, bursting out of the feeding center front door. Oliver and Kyle fell in behind me as I sprinted past. Once I made it back to my apartment, I slammed my bedroom door hard, threw myself on the bed and shoved my face into a pillow.

I screamed for as long as I could into my pillow, only stopping when my head shook and I had no breath left. Everything was out of control and I hated it. Helplessness was one of the worst emotions. Powerlessness too. Because I knew that it was bad to leave Tessa here, but she controlled her own life and choices, no matter how terrible they were.

Folding my body tighter around the pillow, I cursed soundly into it, even digging up a few of my favorites from the enforcers. And yet I didn’t feel any better. For the millionth time I cursed the Hive. Seriously … fuck this place. My entire life had been turned upside down because I was born different. But it shouldn’t be this way, I was still human—well, some of me was.

I understood the vampire virus scared the humans, especially with so many dying from it, but ash weren’t contagious. It was bullshit that we were subjected to this lifestyle. It was also bullshit that vampires abused their place of power and treated us like second-class citizens. I looked down at my shaking hands. Running through these veins was a cure, a way to end all of this.