Ash (16 page)

I turned to Jayden,
relieved to see he had wound a shirt around his neck and was sitting up.
Together we left the arena, never looking back. Ryder came out of a side
entrance and approached me with a solemn face.

“You did it.”

I could only nod. I had
just fought for the right to live in a society that I wanted nothing to do
with. Yay. Life was great.

It had been a week since the culling and
life in the Hive had completely changed. We were given ID badges with our
actual names. Jayden and I received a nice two-bedroom apartment that happened
to be down the hall from Ryder and the enforcers. Level thirty-three. We got to
wear normal clothes and were assigned shitty jobs. Jayden worked the front desk
at the feeding center and I helped in the communications room. I got to
dispatch Ryder and his enforcer team to different situations that got called
in. It was hella boring and I would much rather be going to the actual calls and
enforcing, but I guess it was fine for now. The nightmares from the culling were
also starting to ease. The fact that I’d ended lives and had to fight to the
death still weighed heavily on me, but last night I’d actually slept five hours
in a row. First time since that day.

I would never forget what
the vampires had forced me to do, but for now I was going to bide my time. I
couldn’t change anything yet, but one day I wanted to give it my best shot to
end the culling. I was relieved to know that even as a full-fledged member of
the Hive, vampires were still not around much. I wasn’t sure what those suckers
did in their spare time – stuck to their own levels of the compound probably –
but either way I was much more comfortable with ash now. Which was good, since
that’s all I ever saw.

Thank God for emails from
my mom and Tessa, some much needed female interactions. They’d been more than
relieved to learn I had survived the culling, and both were happy to know that
I was applying for permission to go back to my college classes. As an ash of
course. I would have to sit in a special section and not with Tessa, but it
would be nice to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Of course, I wasn’t allowed
back for a year. That was how long new ash were monitored. Which left me bored
and edgy in the Hive. Cell phones didn’t work in lower levels of the Hive, so
for daily communications Tessa and I had to email each other. I smiled as I saw
an email pop up.

‘Clubbin’, read the
title.

Hey bitch,

I miss your blood
drinking ass and now that you’re not on ash probation, I thought we could meet
up at Club Shade. Blake invited me, I will stay out after curfew. Please come,
I miss your ability to down an entire bottle of tequila. Don’t dress like a
boy, show the goods.

P.S invite Ryder, I gotta
see this guy in person.

Love,

Tessa

My smile grew larger. I glanced
over my shoulder. The communications room was pretty empty right now. Just Markus,
the Scottish enforcer, and my current communications job trainer.

“Hey, Markus, what’s the
protocol for new ash going out during curfew hours?”

He gave me a look that
said I might not like the answer. “For the first year, all requests go through
Ryder.”

Ugh. This monitored for a
year thing was going to get old real fast. I drummed my nails on the table top
and then stood to go find the elusive ash. He had just gotten back from a call
where one of the eleven new ash that survived the culling had tried to run
away. He hadn’t made it far, of course. Ryder was very good at his job.

I knocked on the enforcer
locker room door.

“Come in,” Ryder said.

I opened the door and had
to keep my jaw from dropping as Ryder was standing before me wearing only a
white towel. His skin still had droplets of water beading and rolling down.
Good God, this man was trying to kill me.

“What’s up?” he said as
he pulled on a black t-shirt. I followed the movement as it rolled over his tan
delicious body.

In the short time since
we’d stopped training together, I had almost forgotten how perfect Ryder was.
Shit, okay, I hadn’t exactly forgotten, more like I made myself to think of him
as only my friend and an enforcer. No one wanted to lust after someone who was
not interested, no matter how many blazing looks he threw my way. I needed to
meet up with Tessa … or meet a nice ash ready to settle down. Ugh, no, not an
ash. A human maybe … screw the rules. It had definitely been way too long since
I had had a boyfriend.

I stared at his
mesmerizing eyes, the silver so prominent tonight. I wondered what emotion he
was feeling strongly. “Just wanted to see if I could meet Tessa – my best
friend who is human – at a night club tonight. During ash curfew hours of
course.”

He took a moment before
answering. “I don’t know … you’re new, and the Quorum brought a shit storm of
questions down on Lucas after your levitation incident at the culling.”

Apparently it was rare
for a new ash to tap into their houses special skill like that. Thankfully, the
questioning had been brief, but the Quorum were now “keeping an eye on me”.

I forced myself not to
lower my gaze. I wouldn’t beg, but I had to make him understand. “I need this.”

It was either he let me
out or I really would start begging him to take that shirt off again so I could
gawk at his perfection.

His chiseled jaw actually
softened. “Okay, I’m off duty tonight. I’ll go with you. I don’t want any
trouble.”

I gave a little excited
jump and wiggle. “Thank you! Can Jayden come?”

He threw his hands up. “Sure,
invite all the newbies. I love to babysit.”

I threw him a grin. “You’re
not such a bad guy after all.”

He returned my grin with
a withering glare. “You can go now so I can finish getting dressed.”

I sighed and left, trying
not to imagine Ryder replacing the towel with pants. Stupid pants. What use
were they anyway?

I pretty much bounced the
entire way back to my room. This was what I had been waiting for since the
moment I collapsed at my mom’s place – time to feel normal, to pretend for just
one night that I wasn’t some weird, mythical creature that needed bottled blood
to live. Now that I had survived the culling, I was hoping for a lot more
normal moments in my life. I wasted no time smashing into Jayden’s room in our
apartment.

As expected, he pretty
much squealed when I told him of our upcoming field trip from the Hive.
“Seriously? Yummy Ryder is escorting us to a club in town?”

I rolled my eyes at “yummy
Ryder.” Jayden had his own sexy six. He had to stop with all the man greed.

“Yes, get ready,” I told
him. It was midnight and Ryder would be here soon.

Jayden lurched to his
feet. “Me get ready? What about you?” He eyed my skinny jeans and tank-top like
they were dirt-covered canvas bags. I flipped him off but he persisted. 

“Honey, a body like that
needs to be showed off. Please, please, please, let me dress you.”

Well shit, Tessa had been
replaced by her clone. Knowing my new bestie pretty darn well already, I knew
he would not give up. And I was too excited to care tonight. 

“Whatever,” I declared,
and just like that he attacked me with all of his gayness.

My hair was pulled down
and curled in loose waves, my makeup applied with expert precision – darker
than I usually wore, but still perfect. He finished with a red stain brushed
upon my lips. Then Jayden ducked out of the room, he was gone for a bit so I
guessed had headed to the Hive’s clothes stores, before he returned holding
what looked like nipple pasties triumphantly in the air.

I put my hands up. “Hell
no, I’m not a stripper.” Jayden was even worse than Tessa.

He rolled his eyes. “Duh,
strippers don’t wear pasties.”

He dropped the packet on
the bed and whipped out this small black scarf.

“What’s that scarf for?”
It was cold outside now. We were well into October, but ash were naturally
warmer than humans. I wouldn’t need a scarf.

He smiled. “It’s not a
scarf, it’s a top.” He motioned for me to lift my arms.

With a sigh I complied,
somehow knowing I was totally going to regret allowing him free rein here.

Ten minutes later, I was
looking in the mirror –
Good lord
– wearing a black backless shirt that
scooped so low in the front you almost saw my belly button. It fastened at my
neck, and if I leaned forward the pasties were the only thing keeping my
modesty. Jayden let my keep the skinny jeans and ass-kicking boots. My upper
half was stripper central and my lower half was Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Which
was actually kind of perfect.

A knock on the door
startled me. Shit, my eyes flashed back to my outfit.

I had forgotten for a
second that Ryder, and who knows how many other ash, might be at the club
tonight. With my freaky blood, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to have so much
exposed skin.

Before I could voice my
protest, Jayden opened the door and I turned to meet two silver eyes.

The head enforcer took
one of his large strides into the room. He wasn’t alone. His five guys were
with him, the core group of his enforcers, AKA the sexy six.

I took a second to stop
and stare, at all of them, but mostly Ryder. This was the first time I had seen
him in civilian clothes. First time I had seen any of the enforcers in civilian
clothes.

I already sort of knew
Oliver and Markus, and had been briefly introduced to the other three. One was
Kyle, with his mess of dirty-blond hair and NFL player’s physique. He was
Ryder’s second and best bro. Those two were always together. They had epic
bromance written all over them. Kyle had been off on a long mission during my
culling, so this was the first time for us to really hang out.

One of the other two was
Jared. With his hot-ass Australian accent and blond curls, he was the epitome
of surfer dude. I sort of guessed his eyes had been sky blue before the ash
transformation, but now were the same black, with slight rings of silver. He
was a funny, laidback guy, seeming to bring lightness to the other more serious
ash. He had been the one Ryder wanted to train me in weights, and as I had
admired his biceps on more than one occasion, I’d been looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, he’d had to leave with Kyle, so some other random enforcer had
helped.

The final of the six was
Sam. Sam was a bit of a dark horse. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him speak. He
just stood there with his black hair cut militarily short and his features
hard. He wasn’t the tallest of the enforcers – that went to the mammoth of
Markus, who was at least six and a half feet – and he wasn’t the scariest –
that was definitely Ryder – but there was something about him, a contained
energy. He was one to watch.

I found my eyes drawn
again to Ryder. I was like a fucking bee with a flower, needing to suck out
whatever sweetness I knew was inside. He wore clothes like no one’s business. He
had on a dark blue polo shirt and dark-wash jeans. As my eyes dragged across his
broad shoulders and slim hips, I realized he was checking me out almost as
closely. His silver eyes were hooded now, his expression hard to read. I wasn’t
sure if he appreciated all my skin or was hoping I had a large coat to throw
over it.                                                           

He didn’t say anything
about my outfit though, he just flicked his head to the hallway. “Let’s go.”

Oliver gave me a grin,
his teeth very white against the dark tones of his skin. He crossed the space,
and showcasing not an ounce of shame, interlocked fingers with my bestie.
Go
Jayden!
I had quite the happy feels. Nothing like knowing your bestie was
all hooked up with some hottie. 

 Ryder gave me a side
glance, distracting me. “The boys have been bugging me to go out.” He flicked
his head to the group. Kyle fell in on my other side. I tilted my head back to
meet his lazy smile. Strangely enough, I was immediately comfortable with this guy.
He induced no confusing and often x-rated feelings like Ryder, and even though
he had the same tough, badass vibe going on, he seemed a little more relaxed.

“Fuck yes,” Kyle said. “It’s
been boring as shit here for a while. Even my request in the UK proved to be
nothing. The action has dried up since we got that call all those weeks ago
about our mythical ash girl.”

Those black eyes twinkled
at me and I found myself smiling in return.

“I’ll bet you thought
that was some sort of system malfunction.”

He gave me a wink. “I was
more focused on keeping Ryder from smashing the shit out of every single one of
the ash who were at your mom’s house when we got there.”

My eyes shifted across to
the silent enforcer again. “What did they do?” I asked, as some worry seeped
into my voice.

He shrugged. “Nothing
much, but they were too caught up in what you were. They abandoned protocol.”

“And the fact that one of
them was cradling her in his lap while she convulsed had nothing to do with
it?”

Ryder turned that dark
stare on Kyle, who just laughed. You could tell they’d been friends for a long
time. He was one of the few males not afraid of him. We walked in silence for a
bit. I was still pondering Kyle’s words, even though I really didn’t want to
be. Ryder shifted a little closer, and as my eyes rose to meet his, he said, “Your
hair looks good down.”