Page 1 of The White Rider
Chapter 1
I
knew we were in D.C, just not exactly where. One minute, I was in Dice’s hotel room in Disney World. The next, I was in this weird stone building. There were two mattresses on the floor, cans of food stacked in the corner, and a mini-fridge humming away against the wall. I guess they’ve got the power grid up here too. My father wouldn’t live here if he didn’t have power.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“If this isn’t fancy enough for you, princess, I’d be happy to take you back to California,” Asher growled.
“Lay off, Asher,” Aeron warned.
“We talked about this. Ariel can handle herself.”
“Listen, asshole. I wasn’t looking my nose down at your little base… I just wanted to know where the fuck I am. It was a simple question, one that didn’t need comments from the little peanut gallery in your angel brain.”
Asher crossed his arms and glared at me.
“Out of all the women we’ve metafter being called,thisis who you choose to love? A foul-mouthed Nephilim who happens to have been sired by the Antichrist? And I’m expected to jump on board with this?”
I pointed Smurfette at Asher. I was about to unload on this angel when Aeron wrapped his arms around me and lowered my arm.
“How about you lay off my girlfriend? Shewillbeat your ass with her bat, and I won’t stop her.”
“I’ll hold your ass down if you keep talking to her like that,” Dice growled.
Asher just threw up his hands and collapsed on one of the mattresses
“In case you assholes haven’t realized it yet, we are seriously outnumbered. She is going to get in the way. Just go up to the top floor and look at the sheer number of assholes with guns milling about. Maybe you could take your girlfriend up there, and she’ll volunteer to leave. The elevator is busted, so your options are stairs or wings.”
Leif just scoffed.
“Like any of us are going to use the stairs in the Washington Monument when we don’t have to!”
I threw my hands up and shrugged Aeron off.
“Well, you all took the long way to tell me, and just had to be mean about it. All I wanted to know was where we are. We are in the Washington Monument. Can we get to work now?”
“No,” Asher said. “I mean it. I want all of you to go up to the top floor and see the militia that Isaiah commands.Thenyou can tell me if you still want your girlfriend here. I’m going to stay here and eat. Come down when you’ve decided.”
Ireallywanted to smack Asher with Smurfette. I mean really, what was his deal?! And why was he in my painting at the Oval Office? Totally not going there. Leif eased Smurfette out of my hand.
“Why don’t we leave the baby blue baseball bat down here and just do what he asks?”
“Can I take you there the angel way?” Aeron asked. “That is, unless you want to take all those stairs.”
I grabbed Aeron and flipped Asher the middle finger.
“Let’s do it.”
Before I could blink, I was standing on the top floor, in front of a window. Aeron grabbed me and pulled me into a hug instead of letting me go to the window. Dice and Leif surrounded me and wrapped their arms around me.
“Don’t let him get to you, Speedy,” Leif said.
“What is his deal?”
“He doesn’t think we deserve happiness. He thinks they created us for one thing, and we should do our jobs. He’s always had a stick up his ass. Ignore him,” Dice said.
“You’ve never been to D.C before,” Aeron said. “You told us that when we were going to meet up in Mexico. Take a look out the window.”
