The next three days were among the worst of my life.

Dear Men everywhere, the absolute worst thing in the world you can do is kiss a woman like you haven’t kissed in years and then run off like your ass is on fire and don’t contact her. Go screw yourself. With love, Charlie.

Jayden was allowing me to mope around, but I knew he was sick of my shit. Frankly, I was sick of my own shit too. I had all but convinced myself early on that night at karaoke that I was okay without Ryder, that I deserved better … and then he kissed me – with a skill that should be banned, as it was most definitely some sort of weapon. That kiss had blown my previous pep talk straight out the window and I had done nothing since he left than bitch and whine, take phone calls, whine some more, jog, more whining, and think about that damn sexy man. Jayden had all but slapped me up the side of the head today and told me that Oliver had emailed him and the ash were due back tonight.

Yep, freakin’ Jayden got an email and I got nothing. I was seriously going to kick Ryder in the teeth when he finally got back here.

It was time for my feeding, and I headed there at the pace of an elderly cripple. I just couldn’t find the joy in bottled blood any longer. It was bland and cold. I was really starting to hate that I’d fed off a living being. It was too hard to go back. Everything felt too hard. Still, at least I now had the answer to what happened when an ash bit another ash. The blood wasn’t as sustaining in the long term as bottled blood, which was probably why we generally didn’t feed from each other. But with Ryder, that hadn’t seemed to matter. It was perfect.

I finally dragged myself to floor eleven, striding past the ash on the desk and grabbing my usual bottles of blood. Slipping into my cubicle, I almost shrieked as a familiar blond head of hair sprang into my vision.

“Tess!” I forced myself not to bowl her over in my enthusiasm. This was not a scheduled visit but she must have known how badly I needed her. We were totally due some girl talk.

In my distracted state, it took me longer than usual to notice how glammed-up my best friend was. She had always dressed nicely. Her mother’s family had more than enough money to indulge her sense of fashion, but this was a whole other level. Her icy blue dress was skin-tight and clearly designer. Its thin straps barely held her boobs in, and there were these gold drapings of chain crisscrossing over the backless part. Gold, which looked real. You could always tell that cheesy yellow from the true golden color of the real stuff. Real freakin’ gold on her dress! Her boots were thigh-highs, and looked to be made from the skin of a seal or something, soft and rich. What the hell? This was Tess Couture Barbie.

We stared for a few more moments. I was trying to wrap my head around this new Tess. Even her makeup was different, heavy but tasteful, and her hair was tightly pulled against her head. Which she usually hated.

“You look different,” I finally said, hoping she would start bouncing around in her usual manner. It hadn’t really been that long since I’d seen her. What had changed?

Some of my icy fear dissipated as a smile crossed her lips; the ghost of my best friend was still there. “I’ve missed you, bitch.” A trickle of relief followed, and I took the opportunity to cross the room and throw my arms around her.

“I’ve missed you too,” I said, before pulling back from her. “What’s up with all the Hollywood bling-bling? You going out after this? Paris fashion week?”

We sat then. I chugged into the first bottle of blood, which slightly eased the ache in my stomach.

“No, Blake owns a design house. He’d been helping me out. Styling me so I fit in more.”

My face fell. It hit me then what this was all about. Blake wanted to ask permission to turn Tessa. He’d said so the last time I talked to him, and he was trying to slowly work her into Hive society before that. Very few humans were allowed to become vampires. Firstly, the human government took any forced infection seriously, and no one wanted scrutiny from them. And secondly, Hives across the world were very limited in space.

I wanted to lean forward, grab her hands, and start begging her to not be so stupid, to not throw her life away on a dude that she had just met. Blake seemed like a pretty good guy, but he was still a vampire. Just like me and Ryder were still ash. None of us could be trusted. None of us were human any longer, and I wasn’t sure about the other two, but I’d have given anything to have my old life back. I missed my mom. I missed school. I missed the normalcy.

But there was no going back for me. It was too late. Tessa, on the other hand, she was choosing this and I wasn’t sure I could sit back and let that happen. I wrenched the bottle from my fangs, throwing it into the trash. “I am begging you not to do this, Tessa. Think about your family. Think about everything you will be giving up. This is not the glamorous life you believe. And you will never be able to have kids.”

My eyelashes fluttered for a moment as a heavy weight descended in my chest. “I can never have kids,” I said with barely a whisper. “This is not a gift, it’s a fucking curse.”

And with those last words I tore out of the room and left my wide-eyed, slack-jawed friend sitting there. I was so all over the place. In all honesty, despite my words to Tessa, I didn’t actually hate my life here that much. But it wasn’t a choice I’d have made either. I wanted to scare her, make her question this thing with Blake. I wasn’t sure it was enough, I knew how stubborn she was. Maybe I needed to pay a visit to Blake, or even Lucas. My previous sponsor was the head of the sixth house, and that was Blake’s house.

Maybe he could have a word with him. I wasn’t sure how much control the heads of the houses had over their members. The heads were the Quorum leaders of course, and as a group they were scary, but they didn’t seem to do much individual day to day monitoring of anything. I had never even officially met the head of the fourth house, even though I was in that branch. Which led me to believe that they were always off doing other things. The rules of the Hive were basically enforced by Ryder and his men. Despite the fact that vampires thought of themselves as superior, they seemed to do jack all in regards to the heavy lifting.

I often wondered why they gave so much power to the very race which might one day band together and rise up against them. It hadn’t happened yet, but one day the ash would revolt. The culling was barbaric, and I wasn’t sure I could be in the Hive for the next one. I still, on occasion, had nightmares thinking of the men I’d killed.

I didn’t know where Lucas was, but I figured the best place to start would be his penthouse. I practically ran my ass through the Hive, up the elevator, and out onto level fifty. I didn’t pause before I reached his suite and started slamming my fist repeatedly against the white door.

“Lucas!” Patience was not my strongest suit right now. I was panicking, and this made me do stupid shit.

There was no answer and I could hear nothing on the other side. He wasn’t here. Dammit! I’d have to come back later. I couldn’t hang around now, I was due for my shift in the call center. At least the enforcers should be back. Maybe I’d work off some of this frustration by kicking the shit out of kiss-me-and-not-call-for-three-days Ryder. Yes, I decided, as I turned away from Lucas’ suite, that sounded like a perfect plan.

There were two ash in the room when I entered ten minutes later, neither of them enforcers, both lowly shit-kickers like me. I so badly wanted to be an enforcer. It was unfair they were out there doing things and I was stuck here taking calls. Ninety percent of which were false alarms. Their shift was over, so they left without a word. I was still getting plenty of extra looks, and more than a few had approached me about spending some quality time with them, but these two were professional. They did their job and barely talked to me. Which was how I liked it.

I settled back into my padded, high-backed chair. For some reason, even though it was generally a two person shift, I was always in here alone. Or with one of the sexy six or the extended group of enforcers.

Speaking of, they should have been back by now. I swiveled in the chair, one eye on the door at all times. I’d like to think I wasn’t so much acting like a crazy girlfriend as much as I was acting like a concerned friend. But, in reality I was dying to see Ryder. For so many reasons. But mostly to stare into those silver and black eyes for the first time since “the kiss” and see if the same heavy emotions still laced them. I needed to see if he had missed me too.

In my musing, I didn’t hear the scuff of boots, and by the time my head shot up, Kyle was in the doorway. I jumped to my feet, taking the two steps across the room to stand right before him.

“Hey…” I sounded a little breathless, and knew I needed to try and find some cool again. I was officially screwed right now, and my feels were leaking all over the place. “How was the call out?”

Details on their operation were limited and had seemed a little sketchy. Oliver had told Jayden that the Hive in Seattle had had some sort of internal problem which required specialist treatment. And Ryder and his men were the best enforcers in America, so they’d had to step in. It just seemed awfully strange that no one else had heard of any mass craziness in other Hives. To take away all of our top enforcers, it should have been huge enough to make the gossip-vine light up. They’d left us virtually unprotected. But clearly I was just a worrier, because they were back now and nothing terrible had happened while they were gone.

“Hey, Charlie bear,” Kyle said with a massive grin. He leaned forward and swept me into a hug. “Good to see you holding this place together while we were gone.” I hadn’t expected the show of affection from him. I think I had officially been accepted into the enforcer inner circle.

Yes!

I couldn’t hold back the grin. Ryder’s best friend was such a relaxed dude. The only time I’d seen him lose his cool was in regards to Ryder. Their history clearly had some pain buried deep down.

“It’s been quiet here. What was the big deal in Seattle?”

Kyle, who was dressed in the usual black on black, patted me on the head as he strode in and dropped heavily into the chair I hadn’t been using before. “Seattle was a pain in my ass. Their culling ash rioted and joined forces to hold the Quorum hostage. They killed their lead enforcer. Bloody mess. We’re called in for anything to do with Quorum members. By the time we got there, it had died down a bit. Only one member was in any danger, and that was mild at best. We had to stay for a few days of the culling to make sure no trouble stirred up again, but it was all calm. Ryder and I barely slept. Spent nearly the entire time throwing ash bitches in their version of the pit.”

He lifted his long legs and dropped heavy boots onto the bench, stretching back in his chair.

“We were supposed to be there for another day. Their Quorum had some sort of fancy-ass dinner for us, but Ryder was at the end of his patience with politics. He sent us back behind their backs, and stuck around just long enough to ream them a new one for wasting our time. He should be back tonight.”

I sort of knew I wasn’t hiding my interest in Ryder, even though I hadn’t said anything specific. Kyle wasn’t stupid, and he’d seen our heavy make-out session. I worked hard to conceal my disappointment that he wasn’t back yet, but clearly failed at that task.

“All good, little unicorn. Our big bad leader will be back before you know it. He told me to tell you he says hello.”

I tried to conceal the middle-school squeal that wanted to rip from my throat. Instead, I nodded.

The rest of the day passed agonizingly slow. Oliver and Jayden were shacked up in the room, so after my shift I took off to the roof and spent the better part of an hour jogging my ass off. It didn’t help with the frustration at all, and the fact that Lucas still wasn’t home the five other times I checked that day didn’t help either. Tessa could be in the middle of any shitty situation and I would never know, because for the first time in ages I had no emails from her. My little outburst had pretty much ensured she wouldn’t be telling me much about her vampire excursions.

I had to stop her before she did something stupid, but of course the moment I needed Lucas, the white-trenched-coat vampire was nowhere to be found.

I trudged back to my apartment, grateful to find Jayden there alone, looking a whole lot relaxed. “Hey, ready for dinner?” he said as I stormed through the door.

“Yeah, just give me five minutes.” I was starving, but definitely needed to shower off my run sweat.

I was done in about eight minutes, taking an extra second to choose my clothing and add a little makeup. I might be a tad pissed at Ryder, but I sure as shit wanted to look my best when we first saw each other. Three days and no email? Jerk … even if he was busy working.

“Hot damn, baby, you could turn this gay ash’s head any day of the week.” Jayden whistled as he took in my skinny jeans, flat ankle boots, and skintight tank. It was one of those which was ripped in places and held together by these little scraps of lace. Everything was black, and I’d gone a little heavier on my eyes than normal. Not to mention leaving my hair down to hang in straight layers to mid-back.

I blew Jayden a kiss, crossing to link arms with him. We rolled out and made our way into the ash dining room. It was packed; we were late as usual, and as always the entire room basically paused for a second when we entered.

Jayden didn’t sweat shit like that, simply dragging me across the room toward the enforcers’ table. We had the privilege of sitting there. Not many were accepted into their little group, but the thing with Ryder and me, not to mention Jayden and Oliver, assured that we made the cut. The sexy six might need a new name. Exciting eight. Exotic eight … I’d work on a name for us.

I paused as I counted only five heads there. Before the disappointment could bowl me over, I was distracted by the way they were leaning into each other, conversing too low to hear. Their tense faces sent trills of fear through me.

Something was wrong.

Jayden left me and took off for the long rows of food. As usual he was more than starving, and would soon be back with his Mount Everest size plate of food. I didn’t follow. My appetite was now nonexistent as I took the last few stumbling steps to fall down into the spare chair beside Kyle. Five sets of black eyes locked on me, and even though each of the enforcers’ looks were unique, right then they were all wearing the same expression.

“Just give it to me straight,” I said, wasting no time on bullshit. “You all look like you’re about to kill the next fucking person who glances sideways at you, so I know something has happened.”

Kyle and Markus – the red-headed enforcer, looking surprisingly clean cut and handsome, having trimmed his bushy beard and man bun – exchanged a glance and I forced myself not to scream and stamp my foot. Just as I was about to jump up and start beating the shit out of them, even though they could wipe the floor with me every day and twice on Sunday, Markus answered.

His voice was gruff, the thickness of his accent making the growl worse. “Ryder was supposed to check in when he left, and then again when he landed. He should have been back at the compound thirty minutes ago.”

Kyle picked up the conversation. “He did text me when he got to the airport. The private plane was ready to take off. He never checked in upon landing, and when I called the flight control, they said Ryder never showed. He didn’t make the flight.”

While they were talking, there was this strange ringing in my head, like a buzz or something. It was my panic, and it was distracting enough that it took me more than a few moments to wrap my head around what they were saying. Ryder was missing. Ryder who was the most badass ash in America. What the hell could have happened to him?

I forced the nausea down, and clenching both fists in front of me landed hard eyes on each and every single one of the boys. “Well, what the fuck are we waiting for? Let’s go find out what happened to him!” I get all cursey when I’m scared or worried.

Kyle’s lips thinned, and I realized he was forcing back a smile. He wasn’t the only one either. The rest of them looked both amused and impressed. “It’s dangerous, Charlie.” Oliver’s voice was low and smooth. “Not much could take down Ryder. We have no idea what we’re walking into.”

I was already on my feet. “Only one way to find out.” I turned then, and without looking back or locking eyes with the many curious faces around us, I strode through the hall and out the door.

I didn’t have to check, I could feel the boy’s energy behind me, and I felt more than safe having them at my back. I knew I should have told Jayden what was up, he’d be pissed at us ditching him, but he’d be safer here at the Hive.

Kyle strode faster to fall in line beside me. “What’s the plan?”

I gave it two seconds’ thought. “Say we got an emergency call, drive out of here in the van, sirens blazing. Start driving to Seattle, asking questions wherever we stop. Interview the pilot, rough up the Seattle Hive. Do whatever we have to.”

Kyle shook his head a few times, his eyes drooping down as his entire body tensed. “I should have stayed back with him,” he said as we turned the corner and opened the door leading to the garage.

I shrugged. “I shouldn’t have given my virginity to Seth Peters. Can’t live life in the past.” I tended to lean on inappropriate humor and sarcasm to avoid serious emotions and get through stressful times.

Oliver, Markus, and Jared all chuckled. Not Sam though, he was immune to all of Charlie’s charm. As we reached the Humvee, I grabbed the keys and moved to open the driver’s side door. Kyle placed a hand on the glass, barring me from opening it.

“Nice try. Get in back and hide.” He pulled the keys from my hand as all of the guys piled in.

Dammit. Bossy-ass ash. Still, Ryder was gone and we were the only ones looking for him. I would obey for now because I didn’t want them to waste any more time. I lay in the back and piled some thermal blankets over myself. The engine roared to life and then we were hauling ass. It was much rougher back here with no seatbelt. I felt one of the guys drop a heavy hand on my side, which definitely helped to keep me in place. A few minutes later Kyle called back to me.

“Okay, Charlie, you can sit up.”

Whew! I sat up gasping for fresh air and took in the rigid postures of the five massive ash enforcers. I wasn’t sure right then, but I thought it was Sam who had held me in place. Which was unexpected but nice from the reticent ash.

All of the boys looked tense and ready for anything. I forced myself to focus, my mind going through all of the places Ryder could be. If he had been taken by humans, he could be anywhere, but if he had been taken by our kind, his locations were limited.

A cell phone rang somewhere in the car. Kyle fumbled to get it out and glanced down.

“It’s Ryder!” He put it on speaker. “Where are you?” His voice was sharp and tense.

“Having pepperoni pizza,” Ryder said coolly, but he sounded out of breath and his voice was raspy.

What the actual fuck? If he was out having pizza, I was going to kill him myself. But I saw the color drain from Kyle’s face through the rearview mirror, and all of the guys shared a look.

“Where at?” Kyle said casually.

“That place we went for my sixteenth birthday.”

How long had Kyle and Ryder known each other and why were they speaking in code?

“Kyle, bring my lucky jacket. Don’t leave it behind,” Ryder insisted.

Kyle met my eyes through the rearview and nodded. “It’s with me now.” Then he hung up and tossed the phone out the open window.

“Phones,” he barked, and everyone pulled out their phones and tossed them out the window. Oh my God. Five smartphones. That was three grand gone, just like that. I climbed over the back seat, my ass hitting Markus’s pretty man bun, and shoved myself in between Kyle’s driver seat and Oliver’s shotgun.

“What the hell is going on?” I quipped. I didn’t have a phone to toss out the window and I didn’t know what had just happened.

Kyle gave it to me straight. “Pepperoni pizza is our code word for if some shit goes down and phones are tapped. Never had to use it. Ryder hates pepperoni, he would never eat it.”

I shouldn’t have let myself get distracted, but seriously, who hates pepperoni pizza? I needed to get to know more about this man, because pepperoni was right up there with bacon in my book. It might be a deal breaker if he didn’t like bacon.

“So, we’re going to a pizza place and the phones were tapped?”

Kyle took a hard left. “No, we’re going to a fishing lake, and the phones were tapped, and you’re the lucky jacket.”

I smiled at that part. Ryder had a code word for me.

“And if the phones are tapped, we most likely have an inside mole,” Markus offered.

Well … shit. At least Ryder was safe. Silver lining. Not to mention he’d cared enough to make sure they brought me along. That had to mean something.

After about thirty minutes of tense atmosphere in the car, we pulled up to a private Lake in a fancy suburb of Portland.

“This is where he had his sixteenth birthday?” I looked around and saw one thing: money. Big houses, fancy cars, and a beautiful lake with a huge clubhouse overlooking it.

Kyle crept the SUV up to the farthest parking spot, encasing it in the darkness.

“The clubhouse, yeah. We were rich kids. Get over it.”

Ouch. Sensitive subject. They should have tried being a not rich kid. I had my sixteenth birthday in a Chucky Cheese.

“How is it that you and Ryder both grew up in the same neighborhood and were both ash?” Seriously, what were the odds of that.

Kyle lifted his full lips into a smile, kind of creepy that grin. “Our mothers were best friends, rich girls with overindulgent families. It was the ‘60s, free love and all that shit. They both got knocked up by vampires at the same party. This was right around the time that groups were lobbying for equal rights. They were supposed to stop all the testing on our kind, and it was sort of the in thing to try and have an ash baby.”

I vaguely remember Tessa telling me that the ‘60s had been the biggest time for ash in all of vampire history. So Ryder and Kyle were over fifty years old. Of course, they didn’t look a day out of their early twenties. Ash aged so slowly, it was like twenty human years to one ash. We lived a very long time.

“Ryder and I have been buds since birth, and there is no better human or ash in the world. We are lucky to have him.” Kyle finished his little speech, sinking back to wait out the rest of the time in silence. Which was okay by me, I had plenty of thoughts to keep me occupied. Especially about the enigmatic and quite mysterious head enforcer.

We sat in the van for what felt like forever. After a certain amount of time I was no longer able to be patient. I was seriously about five seconds from losing my shit when, finally, I saw a familiar shadow hobble out of some tall, thick reeds. My heart started to beat double-time and I had to stop myself from rushing out of the vehicle and throwing myself at him. Ryder was looking a little worse for wear, limping and holding his right shoulder.

Kyle burst out of the SUV, gun drawn, and I decided that I was definitely following him. Thank God it was dark out, ‘cause Kyle and I looked shady as shit, especially with his gun waving around.

I forced myself to stop a few feet from Ryder. I wanted to hug him but wasn’t sure if I should. It felt a little weird between us, so much unresolved after that kiss. Before I could mentally break apart our relationship any further, Kyle swooped in, his long arms loping across Ryder’s shoulders, taking his weight.

“Charlie’s not safe,” he mumbled as we walked back to the van.

Kyle and I exchanged a glance. Ryder was barely audible. He was in worse shape than I’d thought. What had happened? What did this have to do with me and the fact that he knew something about me “not being safe?” When we reached the car, Markus and Oliver piled into the far back. I squeezed in between Jared and Sam, allowing Ryder to take shotgun. The injured ash took the white gauze which Sam had pulled from the med kit for him and wiped away some of the red on his forehead, the cuts looked to have already healed. In the close confines of the car, his copper blood hit me and I was instantly reminded of drinking from him.

Trying my best to ignore this, I leaned forward, peeking through the middle seat. “What happened? Pilot said you didn’t make your flight? How are you here?” Seattle was a three-hour drive from Portland – he had gotten back somehow.

Ryder barked out a laugh. “Is that what he told you? I made the flight. Bastard set me up. I got jumped by some enforcers from another Hive when the pilot landed in this field just outside of Portland. Said we needed to pick up another person. I didn’t trust him, so I was ready.”

Holy shit. Ryder fought a group of enforcers and got away alive?

Ryder met my eyes. “Charlie, they had your original blood work. They know that you’re not showing normal ash blood and that you’re a direct descendant of the fourth house. They’re after you. They were trying to recruit me to their cause. Offered me money and plenty of other incentives to turn against you.”

Bastards. Guess I was lucky Ryder had an honor code. I had never doubted that he was a good guy deep down, even if he had electrocuted me.

“How much money did they offer?” Kyle flashed his pearly whites at me. “Always good to know the going rate for Charlie’s life.”

I flipped him off and his grin widened further.

“Three mil,” Ryder said.

My mouth actually dropped open. “Like … three million dollars? American dollars?”

Ryder gave a short nod of confirmation. Well, what do you know. For that ridiculous amount of money I should turn myself in.

The CB radio on the dash blared to life and all of the men stopped their joking and focused.

“This is command. Bring in all enforcers. The Hive has been infiltrated. I repeat, the Hive has been infiltrated. ETA on a secure channel.” It was Jason’s voice, a guy I knew and worked with. Sirens could be heard in the background.

My blood chilled. “Jayden!” Oh shit. I’d left my best friend behind. Oliver made a noise then and I spun around to lock him in my gaze. I knew I wasn’t the only one panicking about this attack.

Ryder grabbed Kyle’s hand mid-air as he was about to respond. “Five ash enforcers attacked me. Four of them were regular, run of the mill, but the fifth one, the one who offered me the money, had a fighting style I recognized. We were evenly matched, and before I could hurt him too bad he got away.”

The two shared a look that sent chills up my spine. “Don’t say it.” Kyle was looking as pale as Markus right now. And the Scottish ash was definitely on the fair side.

Ryder didn’t hesitate. “I think it’s the Sanctum.”

“The who?” I didn’t like being out of the loop. The entire car clearly knew who they were. The collective curses had told me more than enough. If they were worried, then I had no doubt that the Sanctum was not to be effed with.

Ryder was silent for a moment. “The Sanctum are an elite group of ash mercenaries. They offer sanctuary to any ash who does not wish to live within the Hive. But there is a price to pay. They have no morals, no loyalties, and no end goal. They are highly trained killers who do what they do for money. Glorified hit men. I think a price has been put on your head.”

The air whooshed out of me. “How do you know all this?”

The entire car was silent. Ryder looked out the car window as if reminiscing. His voice was hollow. “Because I was recruited by them. I was lost for a few years after I changed, and they offered me a way to focus through the pain. I trained and worked with them on a few jobs until I realized we were killing innocents. Then I left.”

Holy shit. That’s how Ryder had become so deadly. Something told me that if these Sanctum had trained Ryder, they were not people I wanted to meet.

“You’re sure it’s them?” Kyle asked.

Ryder nodded. “I didn’t recognize him, but his fighting style screamed Sanctum. He was there to see if I was susceptible to turning, to join them again. And if that failed, to put me out of commission before attacking the Hive. Should have sent two of them if they wanted to make sure of that.”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but he was really just stating a fact. They probably should have sent three.

Ryder continued: “I’m going to say, judging on that call from the control room, they decided not to wait and went looking for Charlie. Of course she’s not there, she’s here with us, so they have made their presence known. They’re drawing her back.”

A searing flood of panic filled every part of my jittery brain. This was worse than I’d thought. Jayden wasn’t just in the Hive while it was under attack, he was in there with highly trained mercenaries, who were after me and probably knew he was my best friend and roommate.

“Step on the gas, Kyle! Jayden is in there with those psychos!” I screamed. God, less talk and more driving to save my best friend.

Ryder turned and met my gaze. “Did you not listen to what I just said. The Sanctum won’t be seen unless they want to, won’t be heard unless they want to. They want us to know they’re there. They’re waiting for you to do something stupid like run straight into their trap. You’re not going back. I won’t risk you.”

I had to keep myself from full on freaking out on everyone in this car. No way in hell was I leaving Jayden. “I don’t care. My best friend is still stuck in there and I am going back.”

All six of the big, scary-ass men groaned then. What? Surely they hadn’t expected I would do this the easy way.

“We should just knock her out and stash her somewhere so we can deal with this.”

I almost fell over as I realized that that had come from Sam. He had finally decided to talk, his voice low and gravely, with a faint accent. Russian or something.

“Seriously?” I threw my hands up as frustration rocked me. “You never speak, and the first time you do, it’s to tell everyone to knock me out. If any of you boneheads lay a single finger on me I am going to make you pay. Every single one of you will have hair remover in your shampoo, and wax strips stuck to your ass.” I jabbed a finger at Markus. “Even you, pretty boy man-bun. You will take me with you now, and together we will save Jayden and our Hive.”

Some of the tension left the car then. Jared’s eyes were flat-out laughing as he locked in on me, his blond curls messy as he ran a hand through them. “She’s got us there, mates, I certainly don’t want no hair grabber stuck on my arse.”

Ryder got very close to me then, his eyes boring into mine, his scent enveloping me and pretty much knocking me over. “You will stay with me the entire time, Charlie. If you can’t promise that, I won’t take you back. We go in there knowing that they plan on taking or killing you. You have to understand this before you agree.”

I swallowed, trying to remember how to speak. What was my name again? I had to blink a few times to clear my hazy thoughts. “I promise to stay close to one of the enforcers, but you also have to promise me that we will make Jayden a priority. He is my family.”

Ryder and I remained eye-locked for some endless moments, his eyes dropping for a second to stare at my lips. I wondered if he was remembering our kiss too. Finally he gave me a head nod and I knew it was settled.

Kyle threw me a grin. “We’re with you all the way. Your family is our family, Charlie. You should know that by now.”

That gave me all the warm feels. It had always been just me, my mom, and Tessa. But now my family was so much larger. Maybe becoming an ash wasn’t the curse I had always believed. Maybe it was so much more.

It was pitch black by the time we reached the outer limits of Portland. The drive had been silent. Ryder had downed a few bottles of blood before crashing out and sleeping most of the way.

“How did he managed to fight off a group of ash enforcers?” I finally asked Kyle as the familiar outskirts came into view. “And one of these Sanctum mercenaries. Is he a normal ash?”

I heard more than one snort from the crew around me, and I guess that was a pretty stupid thing to say. We all knew Ryder was beyond a normal ash by a million, but why? Was it just because he was so close to an Original? I mean, why was he so kickass and awesome and I was just … me? I was directly sired by an Original … or something. It was so confusing, because my results said I wasn’t really an ash. I probably sucked as an Original descendant because I was not one at all. The blood work was inconclusive, which basically meant they didn’t have a fucking clue what I was.

Ryder answered my earlier question. “I had more than a little motivation.” He shifted in his seat, stretching out a little, waking up. “They mentioned that you were the target, offered me the bribe, and I kind of lost it.”

“What happened to the rest of them?” Oliver asked. His tanned skin was looking even darker than usual.

“Dead,” Ryder said, his tone flat.

I actually shivered then, and it was in that moment I realized that Ryder was really scary. I mean, I’d always known he was scary, but I’d never felt the force of that emotion around him before.

The CB radio blared to life: “Core Enforcer team, come in! What’s your status? We have been infiltrated by suspected rival Hive. Although no one is in sight. Quorum is going into lockdown.”

The enforcers exchanged a glance, but none of them picked up the radio. They believed that not only was there a mercenary group hired to find me, but a traitor in our Hive. They would not give any heads-up at this stage.

Kyle spoke this time. “The Sanctum are very good at making Hives think they are under attack from countless assailants. They are fast, deadly, and kill quickly.”

My eyes darted around as I tried to take in both of the males in the front. “So we don’t know if the attack is just the Sanctum, or if there is another Hive involved as well?” All this double-talk was confusing.

Ryder’s lips curled up a little. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, our goals remain the same – rescue Jayden, get him and Charlie to safety, and then go back for the Quorum. That’s the order of business.”

I saw more than one head nod, and I was okay with that. I wasn’t going to be much use against elite mercenaries. The gates of the Hive came into view and we were all distracted. Driving in at night like this always gave me the creeps. It reminded me of that night a year ago – when everything changed.

Remembering was easier now, although it still churned my stomach and sat bile at the base of my throat. I’d been out partying with Tessa, and we’d been separated on the street. Before I knew what had happened, I was grabbed by two ash. One of them punched me in the face, and by the time I managed to pull myself together I was in behind the security fence.

They were like rabid dogs, pawing at me, trying to tear my clothes away, and I had been helpless, unable to fight, unable to even scream for help as one of them had his hand firmly clamped over my mouth.

I cut off the thoughts. I didn’t dwell on that night. I’d been saved. The two ash had been yanked off me by some guy, who then ripped their heads right from their shoulders. I didn’t know who had saved me, I only got brief glimpses of him, but he sort of reminded me of a blond Viking, with braids and feathers and shit in his hair. Probably I’d imagined that part or something, because I’d never seen a single member of the Hive who came close to his description.

My biggest regret was that I hadn’t stuck around and thanked him. All I’d thought of was escape. I dragged myself out of the compound and called my mom to get me. I’d been beat up, scratched, bruised, and bloodied. But I had not been raped or fed on, and I counted myself lucky. Other human women were not usually so lucky when it came to the ash.

That was why I’d hated ash, right up until the moment I became one. Now I realized it was wrong to hate an entire race just because of a few bad souls. Just like with humans, there were good and bad in the Hive. I could see that now, and I was more than ready to protect my newfound home and family. I was prepared to embrace my ash side and kick some ass.