Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(38)
My eyes cut across to Ryder again. My my, he’d been a busy guy, lying all over the place. Lincoln was going to kill him when he found out. I also found it quite offensive to have the Sanctum linked with my enforcers. They were nothing like the enforcers and never would be. But for now I’d play along.
Lincoln walked over to some high-powered rifles. “We’ve got some AT20, but that doesn’t last long in a full-fledged vampire. If they’re hostile, our orders are shoot to kill.”
Ryder cleared his throat. “And by shoot to kill he means cut their heads off, burn them alive, or completely pulverize them.”
I grimaced. Jesus. In the back of my mind I knew Ryder was doing this now because once Becca got the cure in everyone, they’d all return to cuddly oxytocin teddy bears and it would be hard to hate them. Ryder wanted Fugly to have his reckoning and I agreed. Even with oxytocin, something told me Fugly would always be evil.
Kyle remained stony-faced, even as the others in the room got to their feet and started to gear up. Kyle and I hadn’t come with much. I was already wearing my black fatigues, so I wasted no more time in strapping on a few knives and finding myself a rifle.
“If I asked you to stay behind, would you?” Ryder’s voice was soft and made my heart clench. He’d done absolutely everything he could to keep me out of this and we’d showed up anyway. But he couldn’t bubble wrap me, that wasn’t the girl he fell in love with. If I had to accept Ryder as he was, then I deserved the same. Plus, I would never leave my best friend in there.
I shook my head. “No.”
Ryder made me look into his eyes. “What if I begged?” His hands went through my freshly chopped locks.
I tried my best to harden my resolve. He was doing that thing where he completely disarmed me. “Becca has the cure now, so if I die it won’t matter.”
Ryder’s mouth thinned; his eyes went blazingly silver. He opened his mouth, but I interrupted before he could speak. “Hurts doesn’t it? When someone you love has no regard for their own life.”
He looked down at his boots and nodded. “Shit. I’m sorry, Charlie. Okay!”
I sighed, and then nodded. That would have to be enough, because the boys were suiting up big-time. Ryder realized it too. He switched straight into hardcore enforcer mode.
“Have you used one of these before?” he asked me, gesturing to the rifle.
I hadn’t seen Ryder grab any weapons earlier, but I wasn’t worried. Half the time he went to bed more armed than a drug lord fearing for his life. Just because I couldn’t see them didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Gripping the heavy weapon, I shook my head. This model was not one I was familiar with, but it looked semi-automatic and hugely powerful.
Ryder then spent the next few minutes running me through the mechanics of the gun and how to reload it. I had refills of the sleek canister darts filled with the AT20, and some extra rounds of bullets. My handgun was bullets only.
The rifle was definitely heavier than I was used to. Ryder made sure I was able to sight my target properly, and how to adjust for the pull. I forced myself to pay attention because this gun was my chance to make it out of the Hive alive. Everyone in the vampire world was after me, and I was just going to bust right in and say “Here I am.” But it was Tessa. And it was Ryder. I would do anything for those two. They already had the cure, so I was less important in the grand scheme of this plan.
Once everyone was ready to roll, Lincoln led the large group through the house and out into the back yard. We crossed the yard to stand before a dilapidated old shed. Luckily for me I was an ashpire, because the place looked like a tetanus epidemic waiting to happen.
The SWAT leader reached to the side of the door and flicked a cover off a panel of numbers. Quick as a flash – I was standing right behind him and couldn’t follow along – he keyed in a bunch of digits. The door slid across with a whoosh. As we followed him inside, lights flickered on across a large warehouse space. Okay, seriously? This was like James Bond shit or something. The old tetanus shed was actually a state of the art hanger filled with cars, quads and a bunch of other military style machinery. No wonder the house was so tiny; this shed must have taken up the rest of the house block, plus the one behind. What a nicely hidden gem in the middle of suburbia. It must be linked to the industrial building I’d spotted next door.
We made our way right to the back, where a long line of SUV’s waited. Each looked a little different, definitely reinforced, and I had no idea of their various makes, but they were all black. Black seemed to be the color of choice in this business.
“With this sort of mission, we hit them hard and fast so they have no time to regroup or prepare,” Lincoln said. “Fill the cars. We’ll take as few as we can.”
There had to be forty soldiers in this room. Testosterone was high, especially since there were only two chicks, me and hottie tat girl. Although, she was not letting our sex down at all. With a rifle over her shoulder, and handguns on both thighs, not to mention the mini sword strapped to her right forearm, she was female badass goals.
I ended up in one of the middle cars, squished between Ryder and Kyle. I could tell the boys were going to stick close to me as much as they could. We all had our mission, sure, but we three were a team. Protect our own. Even if Kyle and Ryder were on the outs, they were always brothers. In the end, only six cars were needed to get everyone out of the garage and on the way to the Hive.