Chapter 8

I pressed myself against the building, breathing rapid and hard. Keeping my head firmly against the rough brick, I faced the firefight to make sure no one had followed me. I remained like that for a few extended moments, my heart pattering away from fear and adrenalin.

Crappity crap. Had I seriously just gotten away with that? Hells yeah.

Another surge of adrenalin coursed through me and I felt both jacked up and tired as hell. If we managed to survive today, I was totally taking a nap. Naked. No clothes and no worries. That’s what my tired soul needed.

Checking my gun was still secure, I started to climb rapidly, scaling those rungs in seconds. They were a little rickety and rusted through in places, but nothing broke away as I ascended, which was a definite bonus.

Beams of the dying afternoon light hit me as I passed above the shadow of the building next to this one, and I knew I was almost at the rooftop. Up here I would be more exposed, but since I was way above the others, and hopefully no one knew I was coming up here, they wouldn’t be prepared.

Reaching the edge, I slowly pulled myself over, keeping my head down. The space up here was not huge, only about fifty feet across. I could see the remnants of garden beds, and an old sun lounger. Once upon a time this had been someone’s terrace, and now it was just a muck-load of dirt and desiccated bird crap.

I basically glued myself to the disgusting ground—bullets were the greater evil in this case—as I army crawled across to the edge which bordered the zone above the gunfight. Part of me was cursing the amount of time it had taken me to put my plan into action, and the other, much larger part, was praying and hoping that Ryder and the boys were okay, and that no one had been gravely hurt. Upon reaching the edge, I pressed closer to the small bricked-up wall, which provided a decent amount of coverage, and lifted my head to peer across and down. Shit! I was a little far south of where everyone was. Ducking back down, I scurried further along the wall before popping up again in a new spot.

Perfect.

This time I ended up right above the wreckage of humans and ash, my senses firing almost as rapidly as bullets as I tried to take in the entire scene. It took me no more than a few seconds to find Ryder; it was as if I just knew his energy. My heart actually stuttered as my eyes locked in on him and Blue Eyes … Lincoln, whatever his name was. They were trapped on the edge of the Deliverance’s area. Those freaks were keeping them at bay with the massive machine gun.

It looked like in the time I’d taken to get up here almost everyone on the evil side was dead. All that was left was the crazy old bitch, and three around the large gun.

The rapid fire of bullets cut off again, and this time I had the perfect view of them reloading another lot of ammo into the machine. I was distracted then by the two heroes slash dumbasses of the hour, Ryder and Lincoln, as they left their safe little area. The Deliverance hadn’t noticed yet, they were too busy trying to maneuver what looked like fifty tons of bullets into the gun.

Ryder was keeping low to the ground, and I heard pops—Sam and Kyle were now covering the boys from behind, which was good and bad. The bullets drew the attention of old bitch lady, and she noticed Ryder and Lincoln.

With a bark to one of her minions, they both pulled out smaller weapons and began spraying bullets at my man. Muthaeffer. Ryder may have been wearing a bulletproof vest, but nothing was protecting his head. Forgetting about staying unnoticed, I jumped up and took aim straight at her, standing firm like Markus had taught me.

I knew from my training that a bullet from this gun could shoot over forty yards, well within the range I was at now. It might not be as accurate from this far away but I didn’t care. All I needed was to add my protection and distract her until the boys could reach the machine gun.

Ryder and Lincoln were also popping off shots, trying to take out those Deliverance shielded behind the monster weapon. The old lady sneered as she took a huge step toward the guys, firing a random spray of bullets.

Nope. Not happening.

Holding my breath for absolute accuracy, I fired off three quick shots, aiming for her head. Two of the bullets landed and the old lady flew back with the force, her shoulder dripping bright crimson. Not quite her head, but that would do for now.

All eyes turned in my direction then, and not only eyes but guns. I hit the ground in time to cover my head as the area around me got absolutely smashed with firepower. After an agonizing minute of flying plaster, brick, and other debris—my heart pounding so hard I thought it might explode—the shooting stopped. I expected a deafening silence, but instead there was a strange whirring sound. A helicopter was circling the area. And I could hear police sirens in the distance. Yeah, now they come to help…

Taking a few moments, I lay there catching my breath and debating what to do. I didn’t want to peek my head up and have it blown off. Just when I was about to decide, Jared poked his head up across the other end of the rooftop.

“It’s over. The SWAT called in backup and their helicopter is keeping things under control. Let’s get out of here before the media arrives.” His thick Australian accent was the best damn thing I had heard all day. I sighed in relief and popped up, walking over to the enforcer, who helped me down the ladder.

When we reached the bottom, he turned to me: “Oh and that was damn good shooting, for a rookie.” He winked.

I scowled briefly before it turned into a grin. “Good ladder climbing, for an enforcer,” I said, and he nudged me playfully.

Suddenly Ryder was there, eyes blazing, looking every inch the deadly enforcer. Jared took the hint and left me alone with him.

“Don’t ever do that again.” The silver swirl of his eyes was almost mesmerizing.

Focusing the best I could, I dragged a small slice of attitude up from my tired depths, and putting my hands on my hips, channeled my inner Jayden. “Same to you, bud. You nearly got yourself killed, which is the second time this month in case we were keeping track!”

He took a deep breath and I could sense he was trying to calm himself. A few more deep breaths and he seriously looked as tense. At the fifth breath he stepped into me so fast it was a blur and then our bodies were pressed tightly together, the wall of the building behind me.

Ryder’s forehead pressed against mine, his words tumbling out. “Sorry, Charlie but that was the last day you will be allowed out of the Hive until we deal with both the humans and the Quorum. Something has to give soon, and I won’t let that something be you.”

It took a minute for his words to register. I was a little distracted by the press of his body and the fire in his eyes and the scent of spice and cedarwood. Then he was kissing me gently before striding off to bark orders at the team. Pushing myself off the wall, my legs were a little too shaky for my liking as I followed his path across to where our Humvees waited. Our vehicles had been spared the bullets which had ripped apart the SWAT cars and it looked like we were bailing now.

Oliver and Jayden were already inside when I climbed into the middle seat. The door next to me opened and Ryder slid in too. We didn’t want to wait around another moment.

As we drove through the scene, all I could see was the mess of bodies and parts scattered around. Holy shit. I was grateful it had been none of my guys. Beside a few war wounds, we were all leaving here alive. Then an awful thought struck me: “What if Deliverance retaliates on my mom? Did they see me leaving her house?”

Oh God, that would be the icing on the cake.

Ryder answered straight away. “I’ll have the other boys go check on them and warn your mom and Tessa. At least we know there are not many of them around here left to retaliate. Not after today.”

That was true. They’d lost a lot of their people this afternoon.

Ryder was all business as he relayed the information to the boys over the walkies. Listening in and worrying about my mom gave me a pain in my stomach, which I was pretty sure was an ulcer. Could ash even get ulcers? Seemed like this unicorn ash could.

Oliver was foot-to-the-floor smashing his way through Portland. The sun was set now, and the cold was seeping into my body.

“I never wanted to drag my family into this mess,” I said, my voice monotonous as I stared out the window, seeing nothing of the dark streets as they flashed by. “They already lost me, and now they might be under attack from some crazy-ass human Bible bashers.”

Ryder reached across to me and I met him halfway. A slight ease entered my being as he laced our fingers together. I wasn’t alone in all of this; there were others to watch out for me and my family, and that in itself was a huge gift.

“It will be okay, Charlie,” Oliver said. “Deliverance tend not to target their own kind. They focus the hatred straight at the Hive.”

I nodded, and as he turned back to give me a confident, perfect-teeth smile, I managed to return the gesture. His words did make me feel a little better, and if I stayed away from them and my family hid out for a few days, hopefully Deliverance would never think to use them against me.