Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(58)



I must have spoken some of my questions out loud, because she answered. “They knew you would come for them, and they wanted to make sure their seed lived on. Ash are better than humans anyway. We were paid quite handsomely for this gift. Don’t you worry yourselves about us.” She held her chin high with an air of snobbery, but I could see the humans were caged behind bars. A few of the women looked like they may have originally signed up for the deal but were now regretting it.

Kyle snorted. “And should we not worry ourselves about the dead humans all over the place?”

She shrugged again, and I caught sight of the scars on her neck. She was a damn feeder. Clearly they’d taken their female feeders and impregnated them, and the males were turned to vampires. Well, some of them.

“Only the worthy survive,” she said. “We burn the dead when they start to smell, and the ones who survive the virus go into the special holding area. Besides, if you die, they compensate your family. You’ll find no victims here. The vampires took the newly changed just before they went through the tunnels.”

Her face shuttered then, and I knew she had not meant to let that slip. But at least we knew we were on the right track.

“Vampire rule is over,” Ryder said to them, his deep voice vibrating with anger. “War is going down tonight. We’ll come back for you because tomorrow a new world will start and the ash will be in charge of you.”

If we survived, was the unspoken sentiment. Many stares followed us as we turned, leaving the light, to continue along the path. Motherfucking vampires. I didn’t even want to cure them now. I wanted to kill them. Every single freakin’ one. And where the hell was Lucas in all of this? I was torn between mourning him, fearing for his life, and worrying he’d been playing us all along. He did so many wonderful things for me, risked his life for mine more than once. Surely that had not all been a ploy. Maybe he was playing along with them now to try and keep a man on the inside until we arrived. Or maybe I was a na?ve moron. Either way, my heart hardened a little then. A thin frosty shell covered it as I unholstered my gun and clicked off the safety. Fuck the cure darts. The vampires clearly were not going to surrender. I was out for blood now, to avenge those rotting humans back there in the cell and the ones knocked up with ash babies.

We reached a swampy patch of ground. Water seeped through a few of the divots in the stone.

“We’re under the Willamette,” Sam announced, and I shuddered. An entire river was over my head. Oh God, get me the hell out of here!

“The Shanghai Tunnels led to the river but never under it. They led right up to the boat dock so the people could be taken on ships,” Ryder said

Who the fuck cares? I couldn’t breathe. But my father seemed to get what he was blabbing about.

“Yes, they’ve clearly been planning this a while. Must have taken months to build. Probably when Charlie first showed up to the Hive. Or maybe even before,” he said.

My stomach dropped. Fugly. He knew. He had a hunch from day one about what I was and he’d probably had this backup plan in place ever since. Asshole. Even dead he was still messing with my life.

Screw it. No time to worry about it now. We were out of the swampy mess and into the tunnels I recognized. These were the Shanghai Tunnels I had toured as a child. Surprisingly large and open, and above all, creepy.

Sam stopped and put his fist into the air. We all froze, holding our breath.

Sounds ripped through the silence. “Let’s go! It’s dark out!” a man roared. A voice I didn’t recognize.

Lucas’ voice made the hair on my arms stand up: “Waiting a few more moments won’t hurt the plan. No one knows we’re here. Give the humans time to scramble and run about in fear.”

No. No. No. He couldn’t be in on it. He couldn’t.

The other voice seemed perturbed. “The others have already begun to fight. You’re making me question your loyalty, Lucas.”

Lucas let out a nervous laugh and then I heard skin hitting skin, that sound of crunching bone, and a body hitting the cold floor.

“Lucas!” I screamed, running forward, feeling awful for doubting him. He was clearly stalling so he could mess up their plans.

There were gas lamp torches lighting up the walls, and as I strode into view I saw about twenty hulking vampires staring at me. Lucas was standing over another vampire’s body.

“Down!” I shouted at him, and he hit the deck as bullets sprayed from my gun.

Dear God, please don’t let one of these ricochet and hit my head. That would be a very uncool way to die.

Air whooshed past me as my father sailed over me and slammed into the oncoming wall of angry bleeding vampires. I halted my firing, not going to risk hitting him for a second.

My eyes widened as the Viking started to move. My father was an efficient neck breaking machine. He literally severed a dozen spinal cords within moments. Ryder and the boys took care of the rest. Once they were unconscious, we shot them with cure darts. I gave my father the stank eye for interrupting my gunfire, but he ignored it. Running to Lucas, I helped him up.

“I knew you would figure it out,” he said, his voice cracking. “You’re a smart girl.”

Did Ryder just growl?

I shook my head, ignoring it. “What the hell happened, Lucas? Vampires in the Shanghai Tunnels and a breeding program with humans.”

Lucas looked sick. “I didn’t know until today. Allistair made these plans after kicking me out of the Quorum and I had no idea. Charlie, once he found out there was a cure, just before you killed him, he told the Hive to be suspicious of the new blood shipment.”

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