Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (26 page)

As I sailed into it like a cannonball, I caught sight of a Humvee and one other car on the roof. Tapping into more of the heat, I forced my body to glide rather than plummet as I began my descent. I found that if I straightened my legs, it slowed my fall a little. Holy fuck! I was legit flying. All too soon the cement lot crashed into my legs and there was a distinct crack as I rolled before skidding to a stop. Flying I was okay at, landing not so much.

My left leg was definitely broken … but no pudding.

I was alive!

Suddenly Ryder was there scooping me up in his arms and shaking his head. “Are you okay?” His voice was gruff as he tenderly rubbed his thumb over my ankle.

I winced. “My ankle is broken but I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “You’re amazing, Charlie.”

I didn’t have time to respond before the sound of gunfire erupted.

“Let’s roll!” Sam shouted, pounding on the hood of the Humvee.

Ryder crossed the parking lot to the vehicle in a dozen quick strides and placed me in the back, reaching across and yanking up a duffle bag to prop my leg up. Even with the limb as secure as he could make it, I knew it was still gonna hurt as we tore out of here.

The second the door shut and Ryder was in the front seat we were off. Scanning the car, I tried not to bust up laughing at Jayden sitting on Oliver’s lap and the little girl sitting on Kyle’s. Seems they had ditched the second car at some point and all joined forces to come back and save me, which was so sweet, but it did mean we were packed into the Hummer like sardines. Sensing me, the little girl turned and peered at me with those unnerving silver eyes.

“Hi,” she said, and I waved at her, taking a deep breath and trying not to hurl. Sam was driving in circles down the parking garage to the main level. Markus reached across and helped to stabilize my leg, which was both painful and relieving at the same time. Hurry up, ash genetics, work your magic.

Jayden’s leaned over the seat and grasped my hand, squeezing. As I squeezed back, I was so grateful that I was leaving the Hive with my BAFF. I missed Tessa but she had chosen her path, and I still had Jayden.

“Snipers on the roof,” Markus said to Sam, who nodded but didn’t lose an ounce of focus as he continued to racecar-drive our asses around the tight turns.

We were out of the parking garage now and speeding across the street to the far gate that the shipping trucks used. My guess was that this exit was less guarded than the others. Bullets snapped the ground as Sam swerved the Humvee.

“Hold on,” Sam yelled as he plowed through the gates. With a heavy crash, they flung wide open and that was it—we were out of the Hive. The entire car gave a collective gasp of relief.

“Come here, I want to talk to you,” I said to the little girl. What was her name again? Katelynn, right. As she turned her attention to me, I patted my lap.

Kyle helped her climb over the seat and she sat next to me in the back.

“Can you keep a secret, Katelynn?” I asked her, even though I knew that in a week’s time the entire Hive would know what I was. I just knew that the blood the Quorum took this time would lead them to the knowledge that I was the cure.

She nodded, leaning in to me.

I showed her my arm and the blue veins that streaked it. “My blood can cure vampirism and I can make you human again.”

Her mouth made a small O shape as she continued staring at my arm.

“Really?” Her voice was so small and I couldn’t even deal with how wrong it felt seeing her like this—seeing the way the virus stole an innocent little life.

I nodded. “You just take a drink and then it will start to change you back, so you can live with your family and have a long and happy life.”

She licked her lips. “Will it hurt you?”

I shook my head and offered my arm. She winced for a moment, clearly grossed out at the thought of biting flesh, but in the end she latched onto my arm and began to drink. The vampire in the club who’d drank from me had fed for about twenty seconds, so I assumed that would be enough for her too.

After thirty seconds, I lightly pulled her off. Her eyes were glassy, her mouth dripping with blood. She looked like she wanted to bite me again, but regained her composure.

“Your blood!” she squeaked. “It tastes like cotton candy.”

Of course it did. Stupid unicorn blood. The rest of the car’s occupants, who had been wrapped in a tense silence, laughed then. Staring out the window, I noticed that Sam was taking us down a dirt road and into a deeply forested neighborhood. The sun was coming up, and that meant no vampires would be driving around looking for us today. Markus began to duct tape towels up against the back windows to keep the girl in darkness. The sun would still give her one hell of a rash, weakening her, until she was cured. Kyle draped a blanket over her as Sam drove deeper into the forest. We were taking back roads up Mount Hood.

“We’re almost to the drop-off point,” Sam announced, and I saw he had pulled the Humvee up a long private driveway and into a gated compound. There were humans waiting at the gate with semiautomatic rifles.

“Who are these people?” I asked.

Ryder turned around and met my eyes. “Ash sympathizers. Rare people that believe ash shouldn’t be punished for what their parents did, that they should be allowed to mingle with society. Some of them had ash children, or a friend who did.”

Most humans hated ash. I don’t know why, they just did. It was nice to know there were a few out there who got what we went through, who cared.

Sam pulled the Humvee into a dark garage and I saw two oddly familiar faces there. It took me a few moments to place where I remembered them from. My eyes dropped down to the blanket covering Katelynn.
Right!

They had been on the news when all hell broke loose. They were her parents. The garage closed then, enclosing us in darkness. Kyle and Markus held their guns close, with the safety off. Ryder popped out of the car and opened the back door, pulling the blankets off the girl. As she sat up, she surprised me with a hug.

Did her skin already look a little less pale? Her eyes a bit less silver?

“Thanks,” she whispered, and then jumped out into her parents’ arms.

Ryder addressed her family and the few surrounding sympathizers. “She’s been inoculated with the cure and will be human within the next few weeks. Don’t ask me how, I can’t tell you. Until then, you must take precautions with the sun, and she might need some final blood to help her heal.”

He dropped a bag from our precious supply into one of the humans’
hands.

Katelynn’s parents looked at Ryder in shock and broke down into tears. The mother wailed, clutching her daughter closely. Tears sprang up in my eyes as I realized what a difference my blood had made in this girl’s life. Never again could I just sit on the sidelines and hide. I had to figure out a way to take who and what I was and use it for the greater good.

I wasn’t used to humans looking at us with anything other than contempt. Most of these sympathizers just looked utterly baffled, but there was no hatred.

“There’s a cure?” rang out from more than one of them.

Ryder nodded, but his expression did not soften. He would not reveal my secret, and we’d be long gone by the time the humans could quiz Katelynn. “No more questions. Thank you for arranging this meet-up with the girl’s family.”

Despite the fact they looked like they wanted to protest, the humans just gave us lingering stares before turning and retreating. The garage door opened and Ryder shut the back hatch, getting into the car, and we were gone, heading down the long driveway and back out onto the road to Mount Hood.

Ryder turned to the driver. “Okay, Sam, I have trusted you this far, but now I need to know where we’re going.”

Sam gripped the wheel, staring out onto the main road. “We drive to Bend, take a private plane from there to north Canada, and then charter a helicopter to our final destination.”

Ryder frowned. “And where is our final destination?”

Sam met Ryder’s eyes for a moment, but then shook his head.

“I can’t tell you, brother. You’ll just have to trust me a little while longer.”

Jayden caught my eye and we both scowled. Sam wouldn’t be leading us into a trap, would he? But Ryder nodded. Clearly he trusted Sam with his life. With all of our lives.

After a three-hour drive, my ass was asleep. My leg was partially healed and we had already gone through fourteen bottles of blood. As we pulled up to the small airport in Bend, Oregon, I was getting an uncomfortable and heavy feeling in my stomach about Sam’s secrecy. Were we all just expected to follow him out of the country into Canada with no other details and a dwindling supply of blood? Apparently so.

There was a small white plane waiting in a massive hanger. The boys began loading our supplies into the cargo holds while Ryder came to help me get inside.

“Who’s flying this thing?” I asked.

“I am,” Sam said, as he took my other arm and helped me up into the plane.

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re a pilot?”

“Yes,” he said, in his limited word usage way.

In such close proximity to Sam, with beams of sunlight filtering across the space, I could see he had the lightest smattering of freckles across his nose. Just another thing I hadn’t known about him. After getting me up the small steps and into the plane, I was deposited into one of the large tan leather seats scattered about the main cabin. There were about ten chairs in total, so it was not a very large area.

I grabbed Sam’s hand before he could leave.

“I’m a girl with daddy issues, Sam, so I don’t trust easily. Why aren’t you telling us where we’re headed?” My pulse was racing as I prayed this didn’t turn into a big confrontation.

Sam looked sadly at me and kneeled down, coming close. “I have no way of knowing if we are being overheard. What if the Quorum sewed listening chips into our clothing? Our duffle bags?”

My stomach rolled at the thought. Oh God. Were they on their way here now? I wanted to rip my clothes off and check the seams or something.

“There are some things in life worth risking everything for. I’m willing to risk all of you not trusting me or being mad at me if it means I can keep this secret destination safe.”

Ryder’s hand grasped Sam’s shoulder. “You’ve never steered me wrong before. I trust you.”

I squeezed Sam’s hand as the rest of the boys began to file into the small plane. “I trust you too, Sam.”

I realized that was totally the truth. These boys were my family now, and if you couldn’t trust family you were screwed. Sam nodded and went into the cockpit. Ryder kissed my forehead before leaving so he could slide into the co-pilot chair beside Sam.

Jayden plopped down in the seat next to me and leaned over on my armrest and whispered, “Sam’s a pilot? Good lord, that boy is sexy.” Jayden fanned himself and I smiled. Resting my head on my BAFF’s strong shoulder, I drifted off to sleep.

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.