Ash (24 page)

As I focused in on my
best friend, I could see that Jayden looked a little drowsy, like they’d either
hit him hard enough to stun or tranqued him. Boring dude had a gun trained on
the back of Jayden’s head, his hand steady, not even the slightest shake, like
he could stand there for hours in the same position. The window behind him was
open and I wondered if Sam and Markus were there waiting. Why would the Sanctum
have that window open? Was that how he’d gotten inside?

“Ryder…” His voice was as
bland as his appearance. It was so odd, but I felt like I could forget
everything about this guy the moment he was gone. Which was probably the
appeal. Except his dead eyes, they were seared into my brain.

He continued: “So nice of
you to bring the target.”

Ryder was about two feet
inside the apartment. I was right up in his business, because I knew he would
freak if I didn’t attach myself to him. Of course that didn’t stop me from
looking up and around more than once. I was pretty sure there were no other Sanctum
members in here, but you could never be too sure.

“Laz, I was kind of
hoping I wouldn’t see your ugly face again.” Ryder sounded calm, but I could
feel his tension.

Laz’s expression finally
morphed into something resembling an expression, sort of a sneer or a shrug.
Hard to tell. “You know the drill, you’ve done this plenty of times before.
Drop your weapons on the floor, and if you haven’t handed over the target
within ten seconds, I shoot the friend.”

My stomach dropped as I
saw fear flash in Jayden’s eyes. Ryder was smooth as he dropped his weapon, then
took mine from me and tossed it on the ground also. The heavy weight was still
in my boot, and I was relieved to think we still had that backup. 

“Kick them toward me,”
the Sanctum mercenary said.

“I’ll pay you double to
call off the job,” Ryder said as he slid both guns across the tiles. They bumped
near Jayden’s bound feet.

Laz looked a little
surprised. “It’s not like golden-child Ryder to give a shit about a girl. Looks
like this one is special to you in more ways than one. I might enjoy her before
I hand her over.”

Not happening, asshole.

Then Laz focused fully on
Ryder. “We both know you can’t afford it. This target is worth almost my entire
year, and I
will
be bringing her in. The people who want her, they are
willing to pay anything. She’s more important than you think.”

There I went again, being
the all-important freakin’ unicorn. I would be okay with just being a regular
horse right now. Unicorn was overrated.

Ryder grinned then, and
it was sort of scary and sexy at the same time. “I know her exact worth. And
they will never get their hands on her.”

Laz pressed the gun
harder against Jayden. My friend’s head snapped forward from the impact. “Say
goodbye to your friend,” he said.

“No,” I screamed, and right
then I didn’t care about Ryder’s previous orders, I was handing myself over. If
Jayden died because of me, I might as well be dead. I would never be able to live
with myself. I shoved Ryder, who was not ready for it and stumbled. This gave
me an opening, but before I could step out, Sam flew through the window. He
held a gun in each hand and was shooting before he even landed. I felt a hot
weight on my leg, and glanced down to find Ryder’s hand capturing my ankle, yanking
me down beside him.

“Jayden!” I screamed
again as bullets flew. My best friend had better not get hurt or heads would
fucking roll!

I heard grunting, and I
was able to flip over and see that Jayden’s chair had been knocked forward.
Thank
God.
He seemed fine and was squirming to break free. The bullets stopped as
Laz and Sam crashed into each other and started fighting. Laz seemed to favor
grappling. He immediately brought the large enforcer down, but Sam recovered instantly.
He was quick, and managed to flip Laz over and crack him twice with his elbow.

I was distracted as Ryder
silently rose and crossed the room, moving in to help his teammate. Just before
he reached them, though, another dark shadow flew in through the window. I
expected it to be Markus, but the fully black-clad figure didn’t look like the
Scottish enforcer. It was one of the Sanctum. He landed on Ryder, the two of
them trading blows. I started to drag myself across to Jayden. If I freed him,
we could escape together. I’d come back for Ryder as soon as my friend was
safe.

I gasped as Laz gained
the upper hand on Sam. He pulled a knife from within his black fatigues and
stabbed him a few times in the gut. Ryder’s eyes practically glowed then, and
with a snarl he locked his Sanctum under his arm and with the slightest twist
snapped his neck. But he didn’t stop there, continuing to twist until the head
was completely removed from the body. Blood spurted everywhere, slowing to a
drizzle in seconds. Ash bled a lot less than humans. But seriously,
what?
What
sort of strength would anyone have to possess to be able to literally tear a
head from a person? It was inconceivable.

Ryder launched himself at
Laz, knocking him off Sam. Laz pushed Ryder and took off then, heading toward
the open window, and then he …
jumped
. I stumbled up and ran to the open
window with Ryder hot on my heels. We got there in time to see Laz falling
rapidly, right before he pulled a cord and a wingsuit
flipped out from
his black outfit, like a base jumper.

I gave a little shriek as
Markus popped his head up from outside the window, hanging by the suction cups.
He grinned. “Sorry, was a little tied up with the sniper. He jumped with his
boss.” I noticed then the second wingsuit zooming out across the Hive grounds.
“But I can head after them if you want.” His eyes flicked to Ryder.

Ryder shook his head.
“No, you’ll never catch them. They will be gone before you even hit the
ground. 

“Shit, so they all just
get away?” I asked, frustrated. “Well, except for dead guy…” Who I guessed was
the ninja-clad dude from the stairwell. Since he had thrown Oliver down the
stairs, I couldn’t dredge up much sadness for him.

Ryder’s hands were
clenched on the window sill, but he finally turned to face me. “They’ll be back.
This was just a test run. They hoped for an easy mark with me out of
commission. Next time they’ll come in force.”

Great, awesome news to
end this shit day.

“Not to interrupt your
little powwow here, but can I get some goddamn help? Where’s my man?” Jayden
had loosened his gag, and was looking pissed from his position on the floor.

Whoops, I’d never gotten
around to freeing him.

I scrambled to untie his
bindings, and in that same moment Oliver and Kyle appeared in the doorway.
Oliver was holding about eight bottles of blood and was looking a lot better.

“I thought I said meet at
the vehicle.” Ryder didn’t sound that pissed.

Oliver ignored him; his
sole focus was on Jayden. My fingers fumbled a few times with the thick ropes,
and before I could loosen them Oliver stepped in and softly moved me so he
could take over. His eyes were dancing with silver; he looked murderous, but
his hands were gentle as he cut away the binds.

“Did he hurt you?” Oliver
ground out when Jayden was finally free. The enforcer reached down and hauled
his man to his feet.

Jayden’s muscular arms
trembled as he launched himself at Oliver. “Yes, he had god awful taste in music
and his breath reeked. It was awful.”

This was why we were best
friends – we both had terrible comedic timing.

Still, it worked to break
the tension. Even Oliver’s expression lightened. Ahhh Jayden, the world would
truly be a dark place without you. I couldn’t stop myself then from stepping
into them, joining Oliver and Jayden for a group hug. Strong arms surrounded
me, and I was so relieved to know that no one had been hurt badly today. My
family was safe for now. We had been lucky. But I hadn’t forgotten what Ryder
said. They’d be back, and soon. Would we be so lucky the next time?

Ryder stood apart from
us, his jaw rigid enough that he was looking quite statue-like. He was making
it very clear that he was in no mood to celebrate. His worries would not ease
tonight. In the depths of his silver eyes swirled a windstorm of emotions. The
worst, though, was the coldness there. This situation had done something to him
… to us. I wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t feel good. I felt him going distant
again, putting up the walls.

Great. Looked like we
were back to the old days, treating me like no more than number forty-six in
the ash culling members.

Ryder inserted the code into the alarm
system, which halted the lights and blaring sirens. It took two of them –
Markus and Kyle – to use fingerprint and retinal scanning before the Quorum
suites security gates were lifted. The elevators had been halted, and the
entire Hive sectioned off during the breach. I was not surprised, but the level
of security in the building was impressive. Of course, now the mercenaries knew
about all of that – they had a general layout, they knew procedure – they would
not make the same mistakes next time.

I was sitting in the
control room, Markus stretched out on one side of me and Sam on the other. The
dark-haired enforcer had gone back to being silent and deadly, not speaking to
me, but his presence was as comforting as Markus’, who chatted away in his
Scottish tones.

“I just about lost my
grip when the car crashed into the building. It drew away the sniper
immediately. He dashed in to make sure if wasn’t his men. That gave Sam and I
enough time to get into position by the window.”

Turned out the sniper had
been in the window next to our apartment. He would have taken out the boys if
it wasn’t for the few distractions we had set up. Jayden had thought it was
awesome they had gotten to smash up the main level. Of course, that was before
Ryder sent him and Kyle back there to start repairing it, along with the rest
of the enforcer group. Even though there were only six in the core group, there
were dozens in the main enforcer team. Ten of their men had lost their lives,
and I knew the Quorum was preparing the burial now. Ash didn’t get quite the
same sendoff as the vamps, but they still had a ceremony.

I had not seen Ryder
since those moments in my apartment. He was everywhere at once, dealing with
everything, and—

“He’s calling in favors,
you know.” Markus stopped randomly chatting, changing subjects to the one I was
most interested in. “Ryder. Using his contacts to make sure the Sanctum don’t
come for you again, finding out who hired them for the job in the first place.”

I shook my head, my arms
automatically wrapping around myself as a comfort. “I don’t understand. I know
I’m unusual. I know I’m apparently descended directly from an Original, but
besides a little levitation one time, I’ve done nothing else. Why would they go
to all of this trouble? Three million dollars is a lot of money. It doesn’t
make sense. What do they want from me?”

Sam shifted. He was
monitoring some security footage, going back through the mercenaries’ initial
entrance. His job was to try and figure out how the security was so easily
breached, how ten men were killed before the lockdown was initiated. His eyes
flicked across to me once or twice, but he didn’t speculate with Markus and me.

The Scottish enforcer
rested his massive feet on the desk, leaning back in his favorite position. “I
don’t know, lass, but whatever happens, we have your back. Ain’t no one
stealing our unicorn on our watch.”

 I wanted to punch and
hug him at the same time. Our unicorn. They were so arrogant. But they were my
family now, and I kind of like that they claimed me as theirs.

“I should check on
Jayden,” I mused, unwrapping my arms and placing them on the cool metal desk.
“He was still shaken up, and I don’t want him to be alone stressing about how
close he came to dying.”

Sam stopped me as I got
to my feet; a single hand on my forearm did the trick. “Oliver is with him.”

That was all he said,
before releasing me and going back to his footage. I had to shake my head a few
times. His intensity was a little disconcerting, but I was starting to see the
many layers to the mostly silent enforcer.

A noise in the doorway
had all three of us swinging about to find Lucas perched in the entrance, his
white trench coat billowing out around him. He looked tired. The last twelve
hours had been stressful for everyone in the Hive.

“Can I talk with you,
Charlene?” His voice was low, and sort of raspy.

I jumped up, and with a
last wink for Markus, took off toward Lucas. I needed to talk with him too. I
still hadn’t asked him to step in with Tessa and Blake. I hoped nothing had
gone too far with those two yet. I had to save her.

Lucas and I walked side
by side through the hall, ending up on the cafeteria level, which was deserted
at the moment, hundreds of bench seats spread out, letting us see the true size
of the space. It kind of blew my mind to think that every mealtime these tables
were all full. The Hive really was too small for the growing number of ash.
Each culling, fewer and fewer were going to be allowed to survive. In the next
few years, being an ash would pretty much be a death sentence. Not for the
vampires though – every single one of those assholes were welcome.

I pushed down my
bitterness and focused on Lucas across from me. We were seated near the
entrance, the space around us cool and quiet.

“I’m so glad you’re
okay.” He reached out and took my hand, his grip comforting. “I was very angry
about being locked in with the Quorum, especially when my people and you were
out there unprotected. But when a head of a house dies, the entire line is
weakened. It happens time to time but not a lot. It is to be avoided at all
costs, so they always lock us in the secure chambers during conflict.”

I returned his squeeze.
“All good, Lucas. We weren’t even here when the initial infiltration happened.”
I told him bits and pieces about our theories – why the Sanctum had been hired,
how they’d tried to take out Ryder first. I kept a lot of information secret
though. There was a mole somewhere in this Hive. I trusted Lucas mostly, but it
never hurt to be a little cautious, even if he had done nothing but keep me
alive.

“I will organize a security
detail for you also,” he bit out at the end of my story. “I know Ryder will be
on top of it, but I have to do whatever I can to keep you safe.”

I started to shake my
head. I didn’t want a security detail, I didn’t want to be followed and watched
every second of the day. It was bad enough being stuck in here, and I wanted to
be able to go back to college soon. I couldn’t let them stop me.

I quickly changed the
subject to Tessa, hoping Lucas would forget about his plans to sic his guards
on me. “You have to do something to stop it, she’s not thinking straight.” I
got louder and angrier with each sentence. “Blake has her all wrapped up in
love, and she misses me. She would do anything so we can live together and be
in the same world again.”

Tessa was lonely. Her
family was rich but not really warm or caring. She always preferred my mom and
spent a lot of her younger years in our house.

The silver in Lucas’ eyes
swirled, and some green lit up the iris. “I’ll do what I can, but of course
this decision does not rest with me alone. I can definitely talk to Blake
though, but I cannot stop him either. Any vampire has the right to petition the
council to turn a human. But rarely are they granted, so your friend should be
fine. She will remain a human, and soon realize that the life of a feeder is no
life for her. It is a phase many humans go through. Most come out the other
side and walk away from us.”

He wasn’t exactly that
reassuring. It wasn’t the “No way, I’ll totally stop Blake” I’d hoped for, but
it would do for now. There was nothing more I could do except continue smashing
Tessa’s email inbox with my heartfelt pleas to stop being a dumbass.

We chatted for the next
little while about this and that. Nothing and everything. It was nice to have
someone to unload my feelings with, especially the heart-wrenching fear of
seeing my best friend tied down and with a gun to his head.

“I’m not sure he’s going
to forgive me,” I whispered to Lucas. “It’s my fault he ended up like that. He
could have died. Oliver could have died. I feel so guilty and responsible.”

Lucas moved around my
side of the bench then, sliding in next to me and wrapping an arm around my
shoulders. “None of this is your fault, Charlie. You have a big heart. You care
too much and you love too deeply. Our world, it’s harsh. It’s kill or be killed
much of the time. Jayden understands this. He’ll forgive you, mostly because
there’s nothing to forgive. So come on, let’s head back to your apartment.”

Lucas helped me up.
“Also, I have a surprise for you.”

He draped his arm around
me again for the walk back to my room. Oliver was probably still there, but it
didn’t matter. I needed to clear the air with Jayden.

Lucas left me at the
door. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as he dropped a light kiss on my cheek
and left. I realized once he was gone that he’d never showed me his surprise.
He’d probably forgotten.

I took a deep breath and
pushed open the door, eyes fluttering as I stepped inside, hoping like hell
that my best friend didn’t hate me. I already had one of them ignoring me. I
needed Jayden.

Shouts enveloped me,
followed by strong arms that wrapped around me and lifted me up into a hard
chest. “Holy shit, Charlie, why didn’t you tell us Lucas had blood wine! This
is the best mutha-effing thing I have ever tasted.”

Oliver spun me around
once, before setting me back on my shaky legs. I realized then what Lucas’
surprise must have been. He’d finally come through on the cartons of wine for
me surviving the culling, and Oliver and Jayden had cracked open the first
bottle. Or finished it actually, judging by the inch I could see left in the
bottom.

I took a second to stare
at the enforcer. He looked so much better, his injuries healed up and vitality
back in his face. The olive-skinned ash had been looking mighty pale when he’d
first dragged himself into our room after the Sanctum took off. Now he was all
drunk and happy.

I turned my attention to
Jayden, who was looking his normal gorgeous black self on the couch. He sat a
little straighter and held out his arms to me. I didn’t hesitate running across
the room and throwing myself into his arms. “Missed you, bitch,” he said as his
muscled arms enfolded around me. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again.”

I pulled back to see him
better, arching one eyebrow as I did.

Jayden grinned, before
leaning in and resting his forehead against mine. “I don’t care who the fuck
has me and how many guns are pointed at my head, if you ever try and trade yourself
for me, I will kick your ass so hard it will make Sanctum look like freakin’ Care
Bears.”

I hadn’t thought anyone
had noticed in the chaos, except for Ryder of course, since I’d full on shoved
him across the room to get to Jayden. But my best friend had seen too.

“Kick my ass all you
want,” I whispered, “but nothing will stop me coming for you. No matter what.”

Jayden groaned, pulled
back to stare at the ceiling. “Stubborn woman, you deserve to love someone as
hardassed as Ryder. He might whip you into line.”

I whacked him across the
back of the head for that one, even though I knew he was joking. Plus, I’d
never mentioned love before. I wasn’t going to delve deep enough into my Ryder
emotions to put a label on them.

I settled in beside Jayden,
the couch snuggling around me. Oliver dropped in on the other side of us and
handed me a glass of red. I held it between my hands, warming it.

“You have to stop with
this Ryder stuff,” I blurted out. The not thinking about him thing was not
going well. “He doesn’t want me. I mean, he freakin’ kissed me like I was the
only woman in his world, like he couldn’t live or breathe without me. The walls
were down, the fire was lit between us, and then he not only doused the flames,
but iced right the hell over them.”

I took a sip, letting the
sweet copper tones cross my tongue. It was followed by a burst of blackberry
and cherry, which was tart and crisp and delicious. I would have to let Lucas
know this one was a hit also.

“Give Ryder time,” Oliver
said. “You mean something to him. He rarely lets anyone new into his world, but
you somehow snaked your way in there almost from that first night in the club
when you were just some human he ran into. He’ll come around.”

I shrugged, even though a
part of me jumped with joy to think that it hadn’t just been me who noticed the
connection between us. Even from that very first night. Still, I wasn’t sure I
had the time or energy to wait around any longer. Ryder and I were friends, and
that was where it would stay. This time I was almost certain of it.

The next morning I woke up dry-mouthed,
with the slightest of hangovers. Luckily, Lucas had provided more than twenty
bottles, because the boys and I had polished off at least ten of them – with a
little help from Kyle and Markus, who had joined us later in the night. Ryder
and Sam were no-shows, and I couldn’t say I was surprised about that.

Breaking the silence,
there was a loud knock on the door. It sent a pounding pain through my head,
and for a second there I thought I might throw up. I closed my eyes for a
second, gripping the thick blanket in hope of regaining my equilibrium.
Thankfully, the dizziness and pain passed, enough so that I could drop my leg
over the bed and stumble my way to the fridge for some blood.