Anarchy (Hive Trilogy Book 2) (4 page)

“Charlie, I need you to understand something because clearly this place has warped your brain.” Her voice was all business. Ouch.

I just nodded.

She started pacing. “Thanksgiving is coming up, and then Christmas.” My heart dropped when I saw where this was going. Tessa’s family was rich. Her father died when she was little but her mother had inherited all the money—her mom who had no idea how to love Tessa properly, thinking buying her things would do it. Every holiday season her mother would jet off to Paris or some other exotic location with her current boyfriend and Tessa would spend those holidays with my mom and me.

“Are you going to be able to get an entire day off and come home and help cook with your mom and me?”

My hands flew to my hips, in what I hoped was a defiant pose. “Yes, I will.” I had an all access pass now.

Tessa nodded, a bitter smile across her lips. “What about in twenty years? Fifty? Your mom will be dead and so will I. But you will remain young and strong and you’ll stop coming to see us. You and I won’t talk about boyfriends anymore. You have Jayden now.”

She crossed her arms as tears welled in her eyes. Shit. Fuck. Fucking shit.

“No, Tessa!” I held her as the cries racked her body. Whoa … I had not spent much time around humans since I turned. She felt so warm and fragile in my hands. Everything came crushing down on me then—my old life. It was lost to me now.

Pushing her back, I made her face me, waiting until she stared directly into my eyes. “Getting old is a good thing. Being human is a good thing. You don’t want to be in this shithole and be dependent on blood and deal with the politics and power struggles. You can’t have children if you become infected and turn into a vampire. You can’t have a lot of things.” I pulled one of her bouncy curls and watched it spring back perfectly, just like I had a hundred times before.

Tessa’s chuckle was low and strangled. “I can have you, my best friend. You don’t get it! You clearly don’t miss me like I miss you. Your life with Ryder and Jayden is fine and you’re fine without me.” She pulled back from me, turning away.

“That’s not true. It kills me not to live with you anymore, to make sure you’re up for class and you don’t drink four-day old molding coffee or get roofied at a party.”

A burst of laughter rang from her then and I smiled. The tension which had been plaguing my insides, pretty much since we’d had our last fight, started to ease.

“Withdraw the request to be changed, please,” I begged.

Whatever mirth had been on her face faded away as her expression became a hundred percent serious. “It’s not just for you, Charlie. I love Blake, and I have nothing holding me to the human world. I never wanted kids, you know that. I’m not withdrawing it.”

Anger and fear lit up inside of me, and words fell from my lips before I could think them through. “Tessa! Don’t be stupid. You don’t understand this life at all!”

Tessa flinched back like I had slapped her. “Stupid?” she screamed. “Thanks for listening to my problems. Some best friend you are!”

She stormed out.

Dammit! I collapsed to the ground and dropped my head into my shaking hands. Way to go, Charlie. Piss off one of the few people in this world who love you. It had been going pretty well up to that point too. I just lost my mind whenever she mentioned becoming a vampire.

Since my time was up in this room, I couldn’t wallow in my pain any longer. I stormed out and gave Jayden a little wave before leaving the feeding room. I just wanted to be alone. Maybe go outside, maybe run away on my own and leave everyone behind. Seriously, how the hell had my life gotten so intense and complicated? Opening the large double doors that led to the hallway I was taken aback. Sam was just standing there like a creepy sentinel, face completely void of emotion. We silently observed each other for a brief pause, before some of his statue-like pose eased.

“Outside,” he said, jerking his head and beginning to walk.

Well, hello, once in a lifetime moment. Had tall, dark and silent actually sought me out and spoken directly to me? Like actual speaking? Okay, it was only one word, but for him that was practically a novel.

My eyebrows creased as I followed him into an open elevator. There was a vampire in there, so we both stood quietly as we made our way down to the ground level. The vampire inhaled deeply and I turned to see his eyes pulsing. For shit’s sake, not this again. Sam turned hard eyes on the bloodsucker, all of us in a weird stare-off. The male vampire swallowed hard, and when the doors opened at level five he all but ran out. Then Sam and I were alone.

I had no idea what Sam was going to say to me. Was he fetching me for Ryder, or was this to do with that look he wore the other night in the forest? Surely he didn’t want to talk about the weather or how insane the last episode of
Supernatural
was. If I knew anything, it was that this enforcer did not do the small talk thing. He hardly did the big talk.

When the doors opened at ground level, Sam strode out flashing the front desk ash his badge. Fumbling in my pocket I found my own special magic card and quickly did the same thing. No more signing in and out? Hells yeah!

Once we were outside, the sunlight and fresh air knocked into me with a welcome burst of energy. I should have mentioned this to Tessa—no more sunlight if she was changed. That girl was a big fan of Hawaii and the Caribbean, a beach baby through and through. After college we had planned on spending six months travelling through the islands. But as a vamp she would never suntan again.

The darkly handsome enforcer, with his few days of stubble on his jaw, looked menacing as he continued striding across the outdoor area. He didn’t look back to see if I was following.

“Sam?” I said, stopping where I was.

He still didn’t turn, just kept walking briskly, disappearing into the woods that dotted the front of the property. What the hell? This guy was all kinds of quirky. I debated whether to follow him, but in the end my curiosity was the strongest emotion. Groaning, I jogged to catch up with him, weaving through the woods to find him perched on a rock overlooking the creek. Damn he was fast.

I let out a big huff of air as I collapsed down next to him.

“Another rookie prank? Gonna throw me in the creek?”

He didn’t smile, only looked sideways at me. “I’m going away for ten days on my bi-yearly fishing trip.”

I gave him a deer in headlights look. “Okay … that’s nice.” First snowboarding and now fishing. Who knew?

Still, as interesting as that information was, why was he telling me this? As if he’d heard my thoughts he turned more fully toward me, his steely gaze penetrating. “Look, I think Ryder is blinded by his affection for you. I think this situation is much more serious than you know and you need to watch your back. Since I’m not going to be here to keep an eye on you, be extra vigilant.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Sam leaned in and whispered: “You have no idea the power of the blood running through your veins, what it could mean for the world—a world caught in the grips of fear over a virus that is not curable.”

It was true, the
Anima Mortem Virus
had changed the world. Vampires and ash. Dividing the world of humans even further.

I was in a bit of shock over how much Sam was saying. Today he was channeling the love child of Chatty Cathy and Debbie Downer, with all of his ominous news and crazy insight. This was beginning to scare me.

“You act like you know something, something I don’t know…”

A flash of animation flickered across his face but it was replaced with a cold hard gaze. “I’m just looking out for you, little rookie. See you in ten days. Be safe.”

He jumped up and was gone.

Sam was … seriously? He barely ever talked, and the one time he does speak he gives me vague and cryptic information on how much shit I was in and how scary my life was—information I already knew, so why bother? I could have sworn he wanted to say something more but had stopped.

Damn. I stayed a while and threw rocks into the creek, trying not to think about Sam’s warning.

Eventually, I had to make my way back to the enforcer locker room. Ryder had only given me so much time to clean up and get blood. It was time for my first shift as trainee. Hells yeah. Screw Sam and his depressing drama. Screw Tessa and her vamp obsession. I was gonna shoot some shit today.

Two hours later, I sat on the bench with my head in my hands.

“Seriously? No calls?” I griped.

Ryder and Kyle were playing cards. “That’s a good thing,” Ryder reminded me.

Oliver was lifting some weights. He sat up and wiped a towel across his forehead.

“So what’s up with Sam’s lonely-guy fishing trip to Alaska twice a year? Think he has some hot human chick he shacks up with in a hotel?”

The boys chuckled, but I perked up at one detail I had not known. “Alaska? It’s winter. Who fishes in the winter?”

Ryder looked at me, that intelligent gaze probing into my inner thoughts. “There’s king salmon this time of year. He brings a bunch back.” He directed the rest of the conversation at Oliver. “We all know Sam is a standoffish guy. Let him be.”

Yeah, standoffish when he isn’t scaring the shit out of you.

Markus distracted us all then with a subject change. “Just because there are no calls doesn’t mean you don’t have to train, Charlie. Ryder might be easing you in, but I’m not taking your cute unicorn ass out into the field until you have a little more training under your belt.”

I kicked out my right leg then, shooting the chair across from me in his direction before jumping to my feet, a wicked grin on my face.

“Now we’re talking.”

Twenty minutes later I was standing at the end of a long firing lane, cold Glock in my hands. We were on level seventeen of the Hive. Apparently this place had more secrets I didn’t know about, like this gun range for enforcer training only. We were alone. Markus stood to my right and pointed at the target.

“Bullets can disable and even kill an ash, but the only true kill spot is right here.” He tapped the center of his forehead.

I nodded, flexing my hands across the grip. Guns didn’t scare me, I had been training with them ever since the attack a year ago, when two random ash asshats almost had their way with me. Thankfully they’d been thwarted by some blond hottie Viking vamp. He’d saved my ass before disappearing, never to be seen again. I’d been keeping an eye out in the Hive, but no one even came close to looking like my memory of him.

I focused on my trainer again. “So headshots are the best for ash. Like zombies.”

Markus cracked a small smile. “Not every day I get compared to a zombie.”

“What about killing vampires?” I asked.

His face tightened with concern and he actually looked over his shoulder and up into the corner of the room. Following his gaze, I saw a small camera with a red light. WTF? Should have known we’d be under surveillance. Ash were not to be trusted, even though they were happy for us to do their dirty work.

“Generally we don’t train in disabling or killing vampires, they don’t like their weaknesses advertised. But the six of us have had to do some training. It’s rare, but sometimes the vampires in rival Hives can be a concern to the Quorum. In that case, grenades work well.”

My eyes bugged out. Grenades. That was a swift reminder that our official job title was protector of the Quorum and vampires. The other shit, bringing in new ash and policing stupid ash, seemed like PR work. Since vampires stayed away from ash as much as possible, it was easy to forget that they were the true power in our world. They used ash for their own gains; we were nothing to them.

“Right, so no need to worry about killing vamps.” I nodded, and said no more.

I understood that we couldn’t really speak freely with cameras around. Still … why the hell not? Some horny-ass vampires seduced our mothers and we were the ones being treated like shitbags? Like we owed them something? As more angry thoughts filled my mind, I realized my chest was heaving.

We were the vampire’s children and they treated us like the help! My rage over the culling had been pushed down and locked away in a place I didn’t go very often, mostly because I’m a big believer in not dwelling on shit you can’t change – that does nothing but drive a person crazy. But I hadn’t gotten over the culling. Not even a tiny little bit. Just barely hidden below the surface was my burning resentment that they had turned me into a murderer. That they used the killing of ash as a form of entertainment. Sure, I knew life was unfair for more than just ash, but things here needed a major shakedown.

Raising my arm and positioning my elbows correctly, I squeezed off six shots into the target dummy. Five of them went where I intended. Yes! Badass enforcer trainee with a gun. Shooting the dummy was quite therapeutic, enough that I could force the anger back into its box. The cage was a little shaky, but for now I was managing to keep it together.

I saw Markus squint. “Not bad,” he said with a shrug.

I narrowed my eyes at him as he patted me on the back, his hands massive enough to cover my entire shoulder blade.

“It’s just quite obvious that you were trained at a shooting range.”

My expression morphed into something mulish. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Markus went over to the wall and pushed a large red button. Suddenly my mannequin target started zigzagging towards me, fast—like vampire fast. Crap, the enforcer was right, I did not have much experience with moving targets.

The heavy mechanical whirring of the machine filled the room. “Now try,” Markus shouted.

Glancing down, I swapped out the first gun for a 9mm Glock; it would be more accurate for this type of shooting. Trying to focus on the zigzagging figure coming at me, I squeezed the trigger—missing. Damn, my concentration was not at its best with all the zipping around the figure was doing. Forcing my breathing to slow a little, I sighted along the gun again and shot until I heard an empty click. I lowered my weapon as I waited for Markus to halt the figure and bring the target toward us. It took a second for it to make its way across the long range. I counted the holes. Still my five from the first time.