Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(59)

My stomach dropped. “No … no, don’t tell me.”

Lucas nodded. “When the new shipment came, it was put into storage per his orders before he died. Portland Hive did not partake in the celebrations. He said to wait and watch around the world. If in a few days no one was cured, then we could drink. Until then we were to feast on old refrigerated bottled blood, and in worst case steal humans through the Shanghai Tunnels and feed from them.

“Dammit!” I clenched my fists tightly, trying to control my anger. How bad could it be? We’d wiped out a lot of Portland in the last battle, and had just taken down another twenty. How many more were loose on the city?

Lucas gave me a devilish smile. “Of course, I wasn’t going to let Allistair win from the grave. We luckily got our shipments earlier than a lot of the Hives, so I’ve been peeling the dates off of the new shipment and replacing it with the old blood dates. I haven’t slept for days.”

Relief exploded into my chest and I crashed into him, giving him a huge hug. “Lucas! You’re brilliant.”

He smiled as I stepped back. “Don’t get too excited. It was just me. I only got about forty to fifty percent of those bottles to the vampires. So half the Hive.” His smile went huge, all white teeth and excitement. I couldn’t help but return that smile.

“So if fifty percent got the cure-blood … that leaves us with…?”

My father answered: “About five hundred vampires.”

I stifled a groan. “So some of the vampires are already turned to human? Where are they? And the ash?”

Lucas smoothed a hand over his hair. “Yep, most of them turned quite fast, and that’s when the rest of the vampires decided to declare war on the city and headed for the tunnels. All ash and humans are stashed in the pit. The vampires plan to kill them when they return. They had no time with the sun setting, and they didn’t want to waste the blood.”

We could not let that happen.

“So there are still five hundred uncured vampires, and they’ve just hit the city?” I wanted confirmation of the numbers.

Lucas nodded. “But it won’t last long. I knew I hadn’t gotten to enough bottles done in time, so as a last ditch effort I spiked all of my remaining bottles of blood wine with the cure laced blood. And when Thomas called for a toast before battle just an hour ago, we all drank. Me included. I can feel the change starting already. The others won’t be far behind me.”

That got a grin from all of us.

“Lucas, you might have just saved everyone. If we can hold them off until the cure sets in.”

He nodded and even though it was subtle, I was starting to notice some color coming back into his face; his eyes glowed a little less silver.

Carter placed a hand on Lucas’ shoulder “Thank you. Now, let’s get up there. A lot of lives can be lost in a few hours.”

Way to rain on my parade, but he was right. I saw a ladder to my right. “Where are we? What’s the plan?”

“We’re on Third Street, beneath Hog’s Head tavern. Plan is to go out shooting and … well, stay alive.”

Okay, so not exactly a plan, but good enough. Lucas stepped onto the ladder, ready to climb up, but I grabbed his arm.

“You’ve done enough. Go back to the Hive and wait for us there,” I said.

He looked back at me, his face filled with all these softer emotions, and I swear his gaze was locked on my lips. Awkward.

“I’ll be okay, Charlie. I need to see this through,” he said as he started climbing again.

I didn’t have time to argue so I just began climbing after him. Once we had all made it into the room, a wine cellar, I immediately heard screaming and gunshots. Sam jumped on his cell.

“Lincoln, we’re about to come out of Hog’s Head tavern. Don’t shoot us,” he ordered. After a few minutes he nodded and hung up.

“What’s going on out there?” Ryder asked.

Sam’s voice was tense. “Lincoln said that some vampires got into a nearby apartment building, killing humans left and right.”

No! Shit. “Let’s go!” I said. No one argued, they all just swung into action behind me.

This was it. This was the battle I had been planning for. This could very well be the last day of my life. A smart girl would jump back down that ladder and run like a little bitch back to the Hive and wait. But that wasn’t me. I was as loyal as they come, and I wasn’t leaving my boys to fight alone. I wasn’t letting the humans or Portland be attacked because of me. These vampires were reacting because of my cure.

Sam, Lucas, Carter, Jayden and the others left the wine cellar, then it was just me and Ryder. We both seemed to know that this could be goodbye. I didn’t want to say anything, didn’t want to hear it. I just crashed into him as his arms came around me and our mouths found each other, tongues exploring for one last time. All the deliciousness that was Ryder. The scent, his touch, the way he treated me like shit for the first month and then loved me so hard I could barely breathe. This man was my soulmate. After one intense kiss he just pulled away and pinned me with blazing eyes.

“Hawaii,” he whispered, and I smiled.

“Hawaii.”

With that we walked hand in hand out into the vampire war.





Chapter 13