Chapter 14

The jerking of the plane jolted me awake. As I twisted my head to catch Jayden’s eye, he made an exaggerated movement of wiping my drool off his shoulder.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, because I don’t even let Oliver drool on me.”

I brushed a hand across my mouth, which admittedly had a bit of drool at the corners, before reaching out and smacking his arm. “Shut up. What’s going on?”

Looking out the window, we had landed in a mountainous, green, and totally scenic place. Must be Canada. The small tarmac we were rolling down seemed to be leading straight into a private plane hangar.

Sam smoothly guided us inside and then Ryder jumped out to close the huge hanger doors. It was darker inside now, but that didn’t stop me from pressing my face to the window. Through the small opening I caught glimpses of a large industrial space. Movement drew my attention as a beautiful woman with long strawberry blond hair strode across from where she must have been waiting against the far wall. Craning my neck to see more, I saw a line of plastic shopping bags along the wall.

After finishing all of his flight things, Sam exited the open-doored cockpit and spoke to all of us.

“Let’s move. We need to be in and out of here quickly.”

I rolled my ankle in a circle and was amazed that it barely hurt. Standing up and testing it out, I was able to walk on it with only a slight limp.

Ryder, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, reached out for me and helped me down. We then strode around the front of the jet and I let out a stifled gasp as Sam crossed the space to the woman and she threw her arms around him. He pulled her close, even lifting her up off the ground. Whoa … Sam was never openly affectionate.

Kyle was grinning widely. “I knew it. There were no fishing trips,” he whispered to me. “He totally has a love nest.”

All of us were transfixed as Sam spoke in hushed tones with the girl and she nodded, hugging him again and then leaving. He turned and crossed back to us. Jared and the guys had already started unloading our stuff, but Sam stopped them with a single shake of his head.

“Leave it,” he said.

We all froze, waiting for him to clue us in on what was happening.

He pointed to the blood cases. “Drink up. It will have to last you the rest of our trip, because we’re taking nothing else with us.”

Jayden’s mouth popped open. “My clothes?” He looked mortally offended at the idea of leaving his designer outfits behind.

Sam shrugged. “Will be incinerated.”

“Monster,” Jayden whispered, his entire face crumpling as Oliver rubbed his shoulders.

Ryder gave Sam a discerning look then, no doubt trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Sam, ignoring our glares, began to undress. His hand waved at the line of shopping bags. “My friend has bought us new clothes. Nothing from the Hive goes to our new location.”

I raised an eyebrow. Damn, this was one paranoid dude, with a very detailed escape plan. Ryder caught me taking a quick peek at Sam’s shirtless form—seriously, it was purely professional interest because he was always so covered up, even in the weights room. Ryder quirked one side of his mouth before pulling his own shirt off.

Sam was forgotten as I allowed my eyes to slowly roam down Ryder’s chiseled abs and tan smooth skin. Good Lord, he was a piece of work.

Everyone was in varying stages of undress now, and Jayden’s wide eyes met mine.

“This is what I imagine heaven is like,” he said.

I wondered if that would make the enforcers uncomfortable. Most men would have been, but they just laughed and shook their heads.

Sam, who was dressed now, went around distributing clothes to all of us. Grabbing my pile, I turned to face the plane. I ripped the tags off the new clothing, then wasted no time peeling my shirt and bra off, and dropping my black dress, exposing my booty shorts and thigh holster for my weapon. The sound of skin smacking skin jolted me as I was reaching for my new shirt.

“Shit, Ryder, I wasn’t looking. It was an accident,” Jared said.

Chuckling, I quickly shimmied into the new clothes. Sports bra and plain black underwear, jeans and a cotton shirt. A little large, but would do the job for now. Turning around, I saw Ryder had Jared in a headlock, but they were both smiling.

Boys, they never really grew up.

The rest of the enforcers needed to get some action soon or Ryder and Oliver were going to be the envy of everyone.

“Drink up,” Sam said, passing each of us three bottles of our preferred blood type. We chugged until we were sickeningly full.

Then, following the lead of our silent secret keeper, he led us into a long hallway and into another smaller hanger. There was an open-roofed section, and on a platform rested a large silver-bladed helicopter.

Dammit, this was so not cool. I was a bit of a control freak, had been since school. I was always the one in charge of the group projects, the one telling everyone what to do. So it was hard for me to just file into this helicopter, no questions asked, and let Sam fly us off to God knows where. My favorite ass-kicking boots had been replaced with Walmart flip flops, my sexy push up bra with a cheap sports bra. We had literally just left all our earthly possessions behind.

Not to mention I’d never been in a helicopter, and the sight of those massive blades, which Sam now had whirling in a dizzying motion, did not fill me with happy rainbow thoughts.

That was the thing with limited options. I really did not have any other choices but to get my butt in there and hope we all survived.

The ride to our destination was loud and we couldn’t really communicate. I was burning with questions for Sam. Was this just another stopover or would this metal bird take us to our final destination? How the hell were we going to feed ourselves now that we had no stores of blood? We had left our weapons behind, so what happened if we were attacked again?

He was going to give me answers soon or I was going to torture them out of him. Jayden could go at his eyebrows. That was definitely a form of torture.

Despite my fears, I eventually started to enjoy the helicopter ride. We traveled over the most beautiful and picturesque land I’d ever seen. Green upon green, wild and untamed, which slowly morphed out into a world of endless ice and snow. I tried not to be a wuss, but I shivered in my seat at the vast and isolated wilderness.

Where were we? Canada? Alaska?

I hadn’t seen a human or a house for a long time. Finally some sort of structure came into view, and as the helicopter began to descend I realized this series of buildings was made of shipping containers. This had to be our destination. Wherever we were, it was damn cold; snow was thickly blanketed over the ground. I eyed my flip flops with dismay. Yes, ash were less sensitive to hot and cold, but snow in flip flops … hell to the no.

After the helicopter landed, I leaned across Ryder to see the buildings better. A series of massive shipping containers were stacked high and in a square formation, which had created a good sized space. A logo on the side of the building furthered my confusion.

Alaskan Scientific Research Facility. Well, at least I knew where we were now.

When the helicopter blades had completely stopped, we all unbuckled and I ducked low as I jumped out. Once I was clear of those deadly blades, I stalked right up to Sam. Every exposed part of my body was already chilled and covered in bumps. I fought off the shivers. Holy shit it was cold, like the coldest I’d ever felt in my life.

That didn’t stop my attitude from emerging in full force. “Okay, we’re here, in Walmart flip flops, with no listening devices. Now tell me…” My chattering teeth lessened some of the stern nature of my voice. “What is this place? Why have you brought us here to the middle of nowhere?”

Sam’s face, which was always confident and sure, faltered. He blinked a few times as if trying to figure out what to tell me. “I ... we ... there’s…”

My stomach dropped. Oh God, was it a trap? Sam might not speak much, but the dude never stuttered like this.

The other guys were around us too, everyone waiting for an answer. Suddenly the door to the building slammed open, the crack echoing across the uninhabited wilderness. An absolutely gorgeous, tall and bespectacled blond woman leapt down the steps and ran towards us. She was fully outfitted for the weather, wearing a large blue puffy jacket.

“Sam!” she yelled, waving both hands at him.

Her focus was laser-like on the enforcer, but as I shifted to see her better, she flicked her gaze across to meet my eyes. In that moment both of us froze to the spot.

No way! My breath came out in panicked bursts as I stepped closer to her to be sure.

The heavy black edging of her glasses perfectly framed the silver in her eyes, which wasn’t as bright as mine, but it was there.

Sam, who seemed to have regained his composure, stepped toward the blonde. “Charlie, this is Becca, the other unicorn.”

Holy eff me! I wasn’t the only female ash.

***