Screeching tires behind us indicated the Deliverance truck had managed to stay right on our ass. Our other Humvee, with Jayden, Oliver, and Jared inside, slotted themselves in behind the van.
“Can we call the human police? Wouldn’t they want to know these maniacs are doing this?” I was having flashbacks of a bleeding Markus and nearly dead Ryder. I didn’t ever want to relive that.
Kyle actually chuckled, before sobering a bit. “Maybe before our evil bosses stole and infected a twelve-year-old girl.”
Shit. Good point.
I was watching the rearview mirror and my stomach dropped when the van’s sunroof opened and a guy holding a large machine gun popped up.
“Ryder!”
“I see it! Hold on!”
Static sounded from behind me and I heard Kyle radio across to the other car. “Van sandwich,” he said.
Sam was at my ear again. “Brace yourself, Charlie.”
I had a split second to reach for the “oh shit” bar before Ryder slammed on the brakes. The Deliverance van’s brakes squealed and I saw the entire vehicle wobble as they tried to avoid us, but they’d been way too close. The crash was loud and hard, and I was thrown forward against my belt. At the same time, I heard a final gunning of an engine and another crash and jolt as the second Hummer smashed into the van, pinning it between the two of our vehicles.
Without skipping a beat, Ryder slammed his foot down again, our tires spinning for a second before there was a wrenching of metal on metal and we were free. A quick glance back told me that Jayden’s car had also managed to reverse out of the crash, and was now following us. I could see the slight crumple to the front of their Hummer but nothing too crazy. Okay, clearly these vehicles were army-spec reinforced, because that had been a hard hit.
Wanting to see the Deliverance van better, I tried to turn my head all the way around, wincing at the twinge in my neck. I twisted around far enough to see that the van was completely crushed and clearly undrivable. Humans were stumbling out of it.
My attention was back in the car then as Ryder reached out and gently touched my lip. “Trust me, that hurt worse for them. You okay?” As he pulled back I looked down at his thumb to see a little blood. I must have bitten my lip by accident, something which tends to happen when you go from eighty miles an hour to a dead stop.
As the metallic and sort of sweet scent of my blood filled the car, Ryder’s eyes began to slightly pulse—silver to black—the way the vampires’ did when they couldn’t resist my blood. It had been a while since anyone vamped out on me. The enforcers especially were used to my unicorn blood now. I was pretty sure there was more than blood on Ryder’s mind right then, though.
“Happy Thanksgiving…” Kyle’s sarcasm distracted us from the surge of adrenalin, bloodlust, and attraction rocketing between Ryder and me.
Before I could come up with a sarcastic reply, Ryder was slamming on the brakes again. For fuc—what now?
A roadblock, about ten yards away from our vehicle. Shit. Two blacked-out Chevy Tahoe’s were parked sideways, with about seven people crouched and standing around them. That first glance was enough to tell me that these people were very different from the douchebags following us, but still human.
Their clothing reminded me of some sort of defense force or military uniform, but of the hardcore variety. Their attention was locked on us, and even as we gave them hard stares back, they didn’t flinch at the full convoy of ash enforcers. They remained serious-faced, weapons in hand.
Yep, the badass vibe was totally making sense; they were definitely some sort of special forces. Based on my many hours of television watching, they looked a hell of a lot like SWAT, with face shields and all.
As Jayden’s car screeched up to halt beside us, I pulled my gaze from the GI Joe humans across from us, and turned to Ryder. I was opening my mouth to suggest we U-turn and head back past Deliverance, when the enforcer’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror. It was rare to see anything but confidence and lethalness cross his face, but in the moment I swear there was a flash of fear and uncertainty.
It was only there for a second, that minor creasing of his brows, shadowing in his eyes, but it had been there for a reason. Swallowing hard, I turned in my seat.
Frickity frack, we were toast. Barreling down the road were six black vans, exact replicas of the Deliverance van we’d just trashed. One held some crazy-ass firepower on top, looking like a freaking war machine ready to kill thousands.