The heavy mechanical whirring of the machine filled the room. “Now try,” Markus shouted.
Glancing down, I swapped out the first gun for a 9mm Glock; it would be more accurate for this type of shooting. Trying to focus on the zigzagging figure coming at me, I squeezed the trigger—missing. Damn, my concentration was not at its best with all the zipping around the figure was doing. Forcing my breathing to slow a little, I sighted along the gun again and shot until I heard an empty click. I lowered my weapon as I waited for Markus to halt the figure and bring the target toward us. It took a second for it to make its way across the long range. I counted the holes. Still my five from the first time.
“Well … shit,” I groaned.
Markus’ belly laughter caught me off guard. “You’ll get there, rookie. We all did.”
Rookie? Really? Was this shit going to stick too? I was kind of becoming partial to unicorn—it had a certain magical flare.
My walkie-talkie squawked. “Showtime, rookie.” It was Kyle. “We’ve got a call.”
My heart hammered in my chest as I quickly loaded my weapon and holstered it. Markus bolted from the room and I was hot on his heels. One of the first and most important lessons had already been drilled into my head. When we got a call, we needed to haul ass. A few seconds could mean life or death. Luckily, the elevator was open and waiting. Markus and I piled into it.
“You stay in the van. You do not enter the residence at any time,” Markus said to me.
“Yes, Ryder,” I replied, saluting him. Dude was channeling the head enforcer with his over-protective demands.
He gave me a serious gaze, uncharacteristic for the Scottish charmer. “You got off easy with the broken ankle last time. What’s that you and Jayden call us?”
We were almost at our floor. “The sexy six…” I said cautiously, wondering where this was going.
He nodded. “Well, there used to be seven of us. So stay in the van.”
The doors opened and he took off running. Holy shit, there used to be a sexy seven? That meant … okay, maybe I would be staying in the van.
The rest of the guys were waiting in the garage for us, one of the Humvees already loaded, engine running. I was not at all surprised to see everyone decked out in all black. Even I had worn my blackest of army-style outfits for my first shift as an enforcer rookie. It was an unofficial uniform since there was no official uniform. That had just been their totally clever ruse so that I’d fall for their really funny trick with the chocolate.
The other enforcers in the Hive, who seemed to mostly undertake scouting missions and general peacekeeping, like making sure the ash in the community were following the rules, wore khaki fatigues. So I guessed the all-black thing was Ryder and his boys’ preference.
It did give them a certain badass vibe. Which I was totally channeling in my own clothes. Ryder’s gaze landed on me, his eyes trailing across my body as we jumped into the van. I’d love to think he was checking me out because he just couldn’t help himself, but I’d seen that particular gaze before. He was making sure I had my gun and walkie-talkie. Mind you, there was no reason for his silvery eyes to stay on my butt for quite that amount of time, so maybe there was a little checking me out in there. Shit, now I was staring. And hot damn, I could totally perv on Ryder all day; he was a big ol’ hunk of ash eye-candy, but right now it was time to focus on the current call-out situation.
We were all buckled in and powering out of the Hive compound when Kyle gave us the emergency run-down. This was the standard protocol. Not all of the enforcers were ever together when the call came through, and to save time and prevent miscommunications over the walkies, they waited for everyone to be in the vehicle before briefing.
“We have reports of six ash causing a bit of havoc on Alberta Street near the food trucks. Apparently there were more of the Deliverance group in the area, and they’ve riled them up. This should be mostly peacekeeping, but because there are six ash, we’re all going along for the ride.”
“Should be a good one for you, rookie,” Jared said, wearing his relaxed, trademark grin.
Deliverance again. Seriously, didn’t they have to go home and pray or practice how to stop being assholes? Ryder had told me this morning, when he dropped me at my door, that this extremist religious group believed they were here to deliver God’s will, that their mission was to rid the world of any who were not God’s children—namely, vampire abominations and their offspring.
“Tell me more about Deliverance,” I said, leaning forward from where I was sandwiched between Markus and Oliver. “I did a bit of research today, and it seems that they are mostly kept under control by the humans. So between the humans and the Hive enforcers, I don’t understand how they keep popping up as a problem.”