The boys chuckled, but I perked up at one detail I had not known. “Alaska? It’s winter. Who fishes in the winter?”
Ryder looked at me, that intelligent gaze probing into my inner thoughts. “There’s king salmon this time of year. He brings a bunch back.” He directed the rest of the conversation at Oliver. “We all know Sam is a standoffish guy. Let him be.”
Yeah, standoffish when he isn’t scaring the shit out of you.
Markus distracted us all then with a subject change. “Just because there are no calls doesn’t mean you don’t have to train, Charlie. Ryder might be easing you in, but I’m not taking your cute unicorn ass out into the field until you have a little more training under your belt.”
I kicked out my right leg then, shooting the chair across from me in his direction before jumping to my feet, a wicked grin on my face.
“Now we’re talking.”
Twenty minutes later I was standing at the end of a long firing lane, cold Glock in my hands. We were on level seventeen of the Hive. Apparently this place had more secrets I didn’t know about, like this gun range for enforcer training only. We were alone. Markus stood to my right and pointed at the target.
“Bullets can disable and even kill an ash, but the only true kill spot is right here.” He tapped the center of his forehead.
I nodded, flexing my hands across the grip. Guns didn’t scare me, I had been training with them ever since the attack a year ago, when two random ash asshats almost had their way with me. Thankfully they’d been thwarted by some blond hottie Viking vamp. He’d saved my ass before disappearing, never to be seen again. I’d been keeping an eye out in the Hive, but no one even came close to looking like my memory of him.
I focused on my trainer again. “So headshots are the best for ash. Like zombies.”
Markus cracked a small smile. “Not every day I get compared to a zombie.”
“What about killing vampires?” I asked.
His face tightened with concern and he actually looked over his shoulder and up into the corner of the room. Following his gaze, I saw a small camera with a red light. WTF? Should have known we’d be under surveillance. Ash were not to be trusted, even though they were happy for us to do their dirty work.
“Generally we don’t train in disabling or killing vampires, they don’t like their weaknesses advertised. But the six of us have had to do some training. It’s rare, but sometimes the vampires in rival Hives can be a concern to the Quorum. In that case, grenades work well.”
My eyes bugged out. Grenades. That was a swift reminder that our official job title was protector of the Quorum and vampires. The other shit, bringing in new ash and policing stupid ash, seemed like PR work. Since vampires stayed away from ash as much as possible, it was easy to forget that they were the true power in our world. They used ash for their own gains; we were nothing to them.
“Right, so no need to worry about killing vamps.” I nodded, and said no more.
I understood that we couldn’t really speak freely with cameras around. Still … why the hell not? Some horny-ass vampires seduced our mothers and we were the ones being treated like shitbags? Like we owed them something? As more angry thoughts filled my mind, I realized my chest was heaving.
We were the vampire’s children and they treated us like the help! My rage over the culling had been pushed down and locked away in a place I didn’t go very often, mostly because I’m a big believer in not dwelling on shit you can’t change – that does nothing but drive a person crazy. But I hadn’t gotten over the culling. Not even a tiny little bit. Just barely hidden below the surface was my burning resentment that they had turned me into a murderer. That they used the killing of ash as a form of entertainment. Sure, I knew life was unfair for more than just ash, but things here needed a major shakedown.
Raising my arm and positioning my elbows correctly, I squeezed off six shots into the target dummy. Five of them went where I intended. Yes! Badass enforcer trainee with a gun. Shooting the dummy was quite therapeutic, enough that I could force the anger back into its box. The cage was a little shaky, but for now I was managing to keep it together.
I saw Markus squint. “Not bad,” he said with a shrug.
I narrowed my eyes at him as he patted me on the back, his hands massive enough to cover my entire shoulder blade.
“It’s just quite obvious that you were trained at a shooting range.”
My expression morphed into something mulish. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Markus went over to the wall and pushed a large red button. Suddenly my mannequin target started zigzagging towards me, fast—like vampire fast. Crap, the enforcer was right, I did not have much experience with moving targets.