Ash (Hive Trilogy Book 1)

by Leia Stone

  He didn’t look fine. His arm was bleeding pretty badly again, and bones were definitely broken in his hand. I wondered why he wasn’t going to the feeding area for blood. Probably it was in lockdown too.

  I felt heat at my back. Ryder was standing protectively over both of us. “Get some extra blood. We will probably need it. Meet us back at the Humvee.”

  Oliver gave his leader a nod, and something passed between them. The sexy six were family, and none of this situation was easy on any of them. Especially the splitting up part.

  Ryder reached down then, and before I could say anything he stashed a gun into the side of my boot. I recognized it as the one from the ninja. I didn’t question him – he would have a reason and I would be okay with that reason.

  He started to move then, his gun on display. I picked up my original weapon from where it had dropped. I needed to start training again. Guns started to feel scary and odd when you didn’t have regular contact with them.

  No one jumped us this time. The door silently opened, and my eyes remained glued on the broad shoulders in front of me. I didn’t question, I just followed him down the hall. My apartment door was unlocked, but Ryder kicked it open hard, like it was no more than a piece of paper, and it banged against the wall.

  I couldn’t see anything at first. Ryder went in front, gun drawn and his scary face in play. He blocked my sight for about eight seconds, but the moment I could see around him my blood did this strange thing where it boiled and froze all at the same time. Jayden was tied to a chair, an unmasked mercenary standing behind him. He was not particularly tall or broad, and had no real defining features. He was sort of bland in a mousy brown-haired way. But his eyes, they were scary – ash black, literally no silver – and they looked flat … dead. This was not a good dude.

  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.

  Chapter 11

  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.”