Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(7)
“Show me.” His voice was gravelly and pissed the fuck off.
Sam shook his head. “You don’t need to see it.”
“Show. Me. Now.” Ryder ordered again, and I was afraid if Sam didn’t do as he asked, Ryder might actually hurt him.
Sam turned the laptop around, defeated, and my hand flew to my mouth. Whether to hold my gasp or stop the vomit, who could tell.
The enforcers’ bodies were strewn around the gym, the very gym they made us fight for our lives in. Blood, so much blood. And so many bodies bent at wrong angles. I couldn’t look. I’d seen enough. Turning my back, I tried to control myself, counting to ten and thinking happy thoughts. Anything so those images didn’t continue to run through my head.
“I want to see this whole thing. Rewind it.” Ryder’s voice was hollow, murderous.
“Hey, mate, that won’t help anything,” Jared said, and from the corner of my eye I saw him put a hand on Ryder’s shoulder. The lead enforcer shrugged it off.
“I will watch the entire video and every single vampire involved will burn alive.” Ryder’s voice was low, almost emotionless. Just his eyes displayed the strong emotions churning within him. They were blazing silver.
I knew it wasn’t a threat. It was fact. Ryder would go back one day and kill every single one of them. This was different than the culling. These men had served the Quorum for years and this is what they got? Cold blooded murder.
Sam hit a few keys and low sound filtered across to us: screams, curses, and gunfire. My stomach churned, and I swallowed a few times to keep it together. I was shuddering as Jayden crossed to my side, engulfing me in a hug. Eventually he pulled on my hand and I let him guide me away, through the hall, past the kitchen, and into my private room.
He sat on the bed, picking at his cuticles. His face was pale – well, as pale as it could go, eyes sad as he turned to me. “Let’s talk about something fun. I need to get that image out of my head.”
I nodded. Despite the fact he could go kung-fu warrior, like in the culling, deep down Jayden was a lover not a fighter. Plus I desperately needed to not think about it either.
“You think Sam and Becca are sleeping together?” I blurted out and Jayden squealed.
“I know, right? I wonder … I mean she’s nerdy, but hot. Her eyebrows though…” He shuddered. “Girl needs help.”
I snort laughed. “They have to be doing it. How could you spend decades out here and not get some action?”
Jayden shrugged. “Vibrator?”
My mouth dropped open and I smacked his arm.
“Ewww, I do not want that mental picture next time I see her.”
Jayden grinned. Asshole.
Our conversation died off then, and despite our need to wipe those last few moments from our minds, it was too big to suppress. Our idle chatter was a Band-Aid over a severed arm.
“We’re going to fight those bastards, right?” Jayden was now channeling his badass side. He wanted the vampires to go down as much as I did.
I was suddenly on my feet, moving out of the room. “Yes we are,” I said, as Jayden caught up to me and we both charged out the door. “We’re going to take them down so hard they won’t know what hit them, and for that we need Becca.”
It took me a few tries to remember the way back to her lab. Jayden was of course no help; his sense of direction might actually be worse than mine.
Finally, though, the bright, overly fake fluorescent lighting came into sight and I knew we were in the right place. Sure enough, as I rounded the corner I zeroed straight in on Becca, who was crouched over a microscope.
She never even looked up as we crossed the cleaned-within-an-inch-of-its-life lab; everything was white, stainless steel, and top of the line. She had tech here which labs across the world would kill for. Which would hopefully mean this was our best chance of creating the perfect weapon to use against the vampires.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Jayden whispered as he followed right behind me. “As my BAFF, it’s your job to make sure that if I die, no mutha-effer donates my body to science. I will come back and haunt the hell out of you.”
I snorted, reaching out and taking his hand. “You’re not allowed to die. That’s a freaking order.” He squeezed my hand tightly then, but any further conversation was cut off as Becca finally lifted her head.
She looked completely stunned to see us there – and we hadn’t been quiet – especially for someone with ash senses. Her eyes roamed across our faces, and she must have seen some of the devastation from the Portland Hive video on our features.
“Has something happened?” Her glasses fell forward along her narrow nose as she straightened and automatically reached up to push them back into place. I found it hilarious, and sort of endearing that she continued to hold so tightly to that part of her old life, because she obviously didn’t need glasses. Ash had perfect sight, but old habits die hard, and I understood her need. She had lost everything else she loved that day at the zoo.
She was still waiting for us to answer her, so I quickly explained about the enforcers and what we saw. Somehow I got the words out. Jayden and I were both shiny-eyed again as the pain and disbelief hit hard. The images from the computer screen continued to flash across my mind, and I wished I hadn’t seen them at all. My heart hurt so hard for Ryder and the other sexy six. But mostly Ryder. He was the leader, and he took his responsibility very seriously. There was no doubt he believed the blood of those ash was on his hands. Which was not the case. The Quorum would have killed us whether we ran or not. And then killed the enforcers. But still, we all knew Ryder was a bad one for holding on to guilt.