Annihilate (Hive Trilogy Book 3) (23 page)

“This area is part of the underground water treatment.” Markus pointed across to the far wall with his light so we could all see the huge pipe running there.

“Stay close,” Sam added. “And watch your step. There are lots of grates and divots in the ground.”

The water grew louder as we marched along. I knew Sam was leading us according to his underground schematics. Here’s hoping the vampires had not adjusted them too much. We could be lost under here for weeks.

Nothing much happened for the next few minutes of fast walk-running, hauling ass knowing time was against us and that we were a few miles from where the main tunnels in northwest Portland were, but just as the sound of water died off, something else came into view. There was illumination ahead, and the space seemed to be quite large. There was no hesitation. We dashed toward it, preparing to fight.

“Holy vampire babies in hell,” Jayden shouted as we skidded to a halt on the edge of the lit-up room. His dark eyes flashed across to me. “It’s like we stumbled into a scene from the exorcist.”

He wasn’t kidding. The tunnels had opened up into a large, caged space. Twenty feet wide, it was like a small apartment, and not what you would expect for underground living, with low ceilings and lots of artificial light. It was still stone, and damp, but some attempt at home comforts had been made. There were hospital beds, cushions, medical equipment, and a small kitchen area installed, which was just great, because the hundreds of humans down here would have needed something to keep themselves alive.

Faces turned in our direction. Well, all the ones who weren’t dead, because quite clearly there were plenty who hadn’t made it through the vampire’s little experiments.

“What are you doing here?” a female said, stepping forward. She wore a simple white shift dress, bare feet, hair all matted. “Ash aren’t allowed in our breeding den.”

I’m sorry … their what? Jayden and I exchanged another wide-eyed look. Not only had the vampires clearly tried to change a bunch of humans to get their numbers up, but they were also illegally breeding with humans? Why the heck? They hated ash? Why would they want more? Nausea made my stomach roll as I imagined the “breeding” down here.

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 naïve 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.”

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.

The second we hit the streets, it was clear all hell had broken loose. The streetlights cast an eerie glow and I could see the muzzle of guns lighting up a nearby apartment building. Screams and the smell of smoke assaulted me. Every window around us was smashed, trash and debris scattered everywhere, as if looting as well as murder was going on.

“Psst!” a familiar voice sounded behind me. Turning, I saw Sasha in full SWAT gear with Lincoln and his team behind her. They ran quickly to our location and we all took cover in the entrance of a nearby building.

Lincoln wasted no time: “Over thirty vampires stormed the building. We should split up and attack from all four sides. Crash into windows, kick down doors. Do whatever you have to and get in there. Protect the women and children first.”

We nodded, but I felt a little bad for the men who we were protecting only second. Before we could move out, Carter jumped and leapt up, landing on the apartment roof and taking out a vampire sniper.

“Jesus H Christ, is he with us?” Lincoln asked, sounding slightly concerned.

I nodded. “Yep, he’s one of the good ones, so please try not to shoot him.”