Slivers of heat filled my cheeks. I knew my face was probably a little red. Were we officially dating? I mean … we had been on a date. Still, there were no labels or titles attached to us yet. Ryder was all dark and mysterious; he probably beat labels up for fun in his spare time.
Ignoring the Latino enforcer, Ryder called the boys in closer. “Listen up, Lucas has approved Charlie to be an enforcer trainee. This gives her a weapon, an access badge, and clearance to leave the Hive grounds on official business.”
The room was heavy, our silence saying everything as we all shared a look. This was a part of a greater plan, this was Ryder preparing for the possibility that we may one day leave the Hive. I swallowed hard, losing the thrill I’d initially felt at my new job.
The boys nodded curtly, which had me squaring my shoulders. I could do this, I was going to be trained and have a gun. Screw the Hive. Game on, bitches.
Ryder turned to me, handing me a keycard with my name on it. “Guard this with your life. Don’t go sneaking around, and stay out of the medical ward. Every door you open with that gets logged into a database that the Quorum looks over daily. Be good.”
I saluted him. “Yes, boss.”
My curt reply was followed up with a sexy smoldering grin, all eyelashes and bedroom eyes. How far could I push him now that he was my boss and possible dating partner?
A few of the boys snickered.
Ryder quickly concealed his earlier charm into a mask of calm, not giving into my pushing of his buttons. “Your locker is number eleven. Uniform is inside.”
I rolled my eyes. He was no fun. All work. I strode across the aisle and found number eleven quickly. There’d better be some cool black army fatigues inside, ones with small pockets so I could hide knives and shit. Pulling the lever, I opened the locker. A whoosh of air hit me first, and then in the next instant I was doused in a warm brown liquid. My breath caught as a startled scream ripped from my throat.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
I blinked a few times in shock as the liquid ran down my face and dripped into my open mouth. The moment it hit my tongue I recognized the smooth, sugary flavor. Chocolate.
Those mutha … effing … asshole … freaking…
At the roar of laughter behind me, I swung around with my biggest baddest death glare. “Welcome to training, rookie,” Jared choked out between laughs.
Even Sam was trying to contain his usual toughass fa?ade.
I didn’t utter a word, continuing to glare. They were just lucky I hadn’t been wearing my favorite shoes. I would have actually shot them with my new gun if my ass-kicking boots had been ruined. Something in my expression must have finally sunk into the stupid six across from me.
Their laughter stopped.
Oliver gave Ryder a worried look. “Her gun isn’t loaded, right?”
Ryder’s smile was quickly lost. “Charlie, it’s a joke. We’ve all been through it.”
Usually his slightly pleading expression would soften me right up, but today I was covered from head to toe in a bucket of warm melty chocolate. Did I mention how hard this was going to be to get out of my hair? Not to mention how torn I was to not start licking this liquid orgasm off of my arm. I was a chocolate whore for sure, but I wouldn’t tell them that.
I smiled sweetly. “Oh, totally, just a joke, right. Ha, ha.” The words had barely left my mouth before I began stalking towards Ryder. All of the guys backed up, but unfortunately for them they’d caged themselves into the side of the locker room where there was no easy escape.
Ryder put his arms out. “Charlie…”
I was already across the room, but decided to tap into the heat at my center, which was the home for my levitation power. I hadn’t used it since the culling, but thankfully everything seemed to still work the same. I leapt across the room and landed right on Ryder. He caught me and together we fell backwards.
Rubbing my chocolate hands on his face, I laughed.
Ryder gave me an amused glare. “Now we both have to shower.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that an invitation?”
The silver of his eyes started swirling as I heard his low groan. Hah. Guys were easy. I was going to say that was round one to Charlie.
After showering—alone—and cleaning up, I went down to my scheduled feeding time, hoping to see Tessa. I had sent my human best friend a hundred emails begging her to come talk to me, but she was mad at me for crushing her dreams of wanting to be a vampire. She thought this was the answer to us being able to stay friends for the rest of eternity. I thought it was a direct path to her losing her soul. Vampires were cold-blooded assholes. Lucas was the only one I even liked. He was different for some reason.