Ash (Hive Trilogy Book 1)

by Leia Stone

  “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 lo
ng 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 the
y 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.”