Ash (2 page)

“In honor of my birthday
tonight, I’m renting out a large part of Stag. You guys should come.”

I whistled low. Stag was
the hottest club in Portland. “That must be costing daddy a pretty penny.” That
wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say. That was the nice version.

She glared at me and
jumped to her feet. “At least I have a daddy.”  

Ouch,
the bitch strikes again. Valarie and I barely tolerated each other. I had no
idea why Tessa liked her, but it was only because of my friend that I didn’t dropkick
Valarie in her perfect teeth.

Tessa elbowed me in the ribs.
“We’ll be there. Thanks.”

I glanced at my watch and
jumped to my feet. “I have a stats class, so I’ll meet you after and you can
talk my ear off about all of the ash you hope to see at the club tonight.”

Tessa also stood, then
gave me a wink. “You know me too well.”

I really did. She was an
open book, but absolutely solid as a best friend.

I jogged off in the
opposite direction, dreading the thought of tonight, but knowing that Tessa
definitely needed me to keep her level of stupid to a minimum. One thing was
for sure: if there were ash at the club, and one of them grabbed my arm again,
I was ripping it off. That was for damn sure.

Tessa and I hopped on the MAX and took the
train downtown. She put a hand on her hip and gave me a sultry look. “How do I
look?”

She was wearing a short
black fuck-me dress and bright red lipstick.

“Like you want to become
a blood whore,” I said with a shake of my head. She’d made me leave my hair down
tonight. It curled across my shoulders and down my back in waves.  

She laughed. “Good.”

I gave her a WTF look as
she eyed my skintight jeans, black ass-kicking boots and tight red tank. I was
showing all the goods, because Tessa wouldn’t have let me leave the house
otherwise. She was always pissed I didn’t let her dress me like her own
personal doll. 

She gave an exaggerated
sigh. “I have long given up on trying to give you better fashion sense.”

I flipped her off, which
had her throwing up her hands. “Seriously, we’re supposed to be looking to get
laid, not kicking someone’s ass.”

I
grinned. My outfit was perfect. You never knew when some ass-kicking would be
required. Especially on the streets of Portland. That’s what all my training
was about now.  And speaking of … my eyes fell onto the large, dramatically
lettered, laminated poster that permanently marred the train walls.

Are you an Ash?

*Increased stamina

*Lack of appetite

*Anger outbursts

*Insatiable thirst

*Beauty &
Strength

*Male

Call the hotline
if these symptoms come on suddenly!

It
went on to list the risks and dangers an ash posed to society, and urged them
to call for free testing. I shook my head. What bullshit. One fine day you were
walking along thinking life was awesome and you were a human and not a
bloodsucking creep, and then bam, your body started to change and there was no
way to stop the slow transition to an ash. All because twenty something years
before, your mom couldn’t keep it in her pants and gave it up to some lusty vampire.
It was illegal of course to procreate with vamps, but sometimes rules are
broken. Repeatedly.

“Why
do you think all ash are male?” I asked Tessa. She was obsessed enough with
them, she should know.

A
cheeky grin quirked up the corner of her lips. “Who cares? I don’t question a
good thing. Besides, that means less competition for us.”

Okay,
apparently she was obsessed
and
stupidly uneducated about ash. Great
combo there. The vampires and ash were unnaturally beautiful, the exact sort of
weapon which came in handy for the luring of stupid, horny women. There were
vampire females of course – for the luring of stupid, horny men – but no female
ash. For some reason the union of male vampire and female human only ever
resulted in male offspring. Male offspring who appeared to be completely human
until their early twenties. The virus slept dormant inside their brain until the
time their frontal lobe finished development. Then they slowly began to change,
and soon figured out that their mama had had some fun with the undead. Some ash
knew before their transformation, others were kept in the dark until the last
moment.  

Familiar
landmarks zoomed past; we were almost at our stop. Tessa and I moved closer to
the door and waited for the train to come to a halt. There were plenty of
students from PSU with the same plan as us tonight, so when the doors opened we
just flowed along with the crowd.

It
was after 11pm by the time we walked the three blocks. Music washed across the
streets, heavy with a strong bass.  

“Holy
shit, looks like Stag is pumping tonight,” Tessa said, practically shrieking my
ear off as she dragged me through.

I
followed, comforting myself with the fact that at least no ash should be here
now. Vampires and ash were not allowed out in public places unless by special
permission, such as college classes. Vampires couldn’t handle the sun, so the
humans were given a curfew of 1am. After that, the night in Portland, and many
other major American cities, was ruled by the Hive, and it wasn’t in a human’s
best interest to be caught out after curfew. Unless you were a blood whore. Of
course, Tessa never cared for these rules. I’d had to drag her home more than
once after lock-out.

The
bouncers checked us off the list and then we were inside. Lights strobed across
the industrial styled club, bouncing off polished cement floors, steel, and
bronze décor.

“Drinks
first?” Tessa bopped along as we pushed through the already crowded space. The
distinct smell of pot wafted in from the balcony and I chuckled. All of
Portland was out tonight.

I
caught a glimpse of Valarie’s peroxide hair up in the VIP section and realized
she’d slightly exaggerated how much of the club she had exclusive for tonight.
Still, even though it was small, the elevated zone was a wicked area. She’d
love lording it over the rest of the people stuck down here on the main floor.
If I pointed her out, I knew Tessa would want to head straight up there. So of
course I steered her in the opposite direction.

“Yep,”
I said, “let’s hit the main bar.” I desperately needed something wet and preferably
ninety percent alcohol.

Tessa
immediately put her skills into play and started shoving her way through the
crowd. She was small enough to fit into some questionable gaps, her blond curls
smacking into the people around her. I wasn’t huge myself, but at five feet
seven I was half a head taller than my bestie. Which meant I couldn’t always
follow her path. I lost sight of her for a second, but we caught up again at
the bar.

“Four
tequila shooters and two strawberry daiquiris,” she was saying as I sidled in
beside her.

The
tired, not-particularly-happy-to-be-alive female bartender scurried off to fill
the drinks.

“Four
shots?” I snickered. “Girl, we’re going to be hammered before we even leave
this damn bar.”

I
wasn’t a huge drinker. Mostly I liked a few glasses of wine with dinner. But generally
it was impossible to hit a club with Tessa and not leave shitfaced. Looked like
tonight was going to be no exception.

“I
don’t know what you’re worried about,” Tessa said, grinning as she swayed to
the dance music. Her black dress was riding very high on her thigh, and more
than one group of dudes had noticed. “You could out-drink me every night of the
week and twice on Sunday.”

Right.
I’d
forgotten about my newfound super ability to down a bottle of wine and only get
a light buzz. “Maybe tonight we should test this theory,” I said. I had to
shout a little when the beat changed to something much heavier.

“Hells
to the yeah,” she shouted, before turning to stare along the long metal bench.
“Hey, can you make that eight tequilas…”

Thirty minutes later,
Tessa and I were still at the bar. I was currently in a drinking contest with
two head-shaven, muscle-bound beefcakes who had been pretty sure they could
take my hundred and twenty pounds.

They
were wrong.

Shot
glasses littered the bench in front of me and I could tell that the bar-chick
was hoping we’d move this shit along soon. Beefy #1 and #2 were glassy-eyed as
they tried to share the last of their bottle. They didn’t make it though,
slumping down and passing out before they managed to finish.

“I
win!” I shouted, swaying a little.

Tessa
grabbed my arm. “Come on, babe. Time for us to go and find Valarie.”

The
nice pleasant fuzz in my head dissipated almost immediately. “Do we have to? I
might actually kill myself if I have to spend more than ten minutes in her company.”

Apparently
all the booze had done was loosen my tongue.

“She’s
texted me eight times,” Tessa said, almost falling off her heels as she tried
to drag me away from the bar. “You’ve already drank a week’s worth of shots.
Let’s go find our friends and dance.”

I
reluctantly let her lead me from the main floor. I knew if Tessa wasn’t so
sloshed herself, she’d be questioning how I managed to finish an entire bottle
of tequila and still walk and talk. I was sort of questioning it myself. The
alcohol couldn’t be weak or watered down, those guys had crashed out trying to
finish a bottle between the two of them.

My
metabolism was on fire at the moment. Must be all the jogging.

“Tess!”
Valarie was all over my best friend, completely ignoring me. I left the pair of
them discussing whatever shit drunk chicks talked about, and wandered over to
crash onto one of the huge sofas. Tessa was used to me doing this. She’d find
me soon and drag me out to dance.

As
I settled back, I liked that the shots had my mind all nice and mellow. I felt
like I could finally relax and not think about all the scars and shit that
littered my life. Still, as the multitude of couples started to surround me, I
couldn’t fight the pangs of loneliness. I hadn’t had a relationship since that
night, not even of the casual kind. I just couldn’t let my walls down long
enough to trust, but I was starting to improve. I was out tonight, I was
drinking. There had to be some healing going on.

I
shifted to slouch further into the couch. The VIP area wasn’t as packed as the
main dance floor, so I had the entire thing to myself. Valarie couldn’t even
pay for enough friends to fill the space. I snagged two glasses of champagne
off a waiter as he strolled by, and settled back to enjoy my free bubbly.

After
finishing the first, I was sipping at the second when a tingly sensation
trickled up my spine. I lifted myself, legs straightening, leather boots
shining in the lights as I twisted myself to see the entire area. Tessa was on
the dance floor, grinding up against some tall blond guy with cool-nerd
glasses. Valarie and the rest of her goons were close by, but none of them were
paying attention to me.

But
I could swear I was being watched. I tried to tamp down the paranoid feeling,
knowing that it was probably just my overactive imagination. Still … the
feeling persisted.

Tessa
distracted me then by hauling her butt off the dance floor and running – as
fast as she could in her hooker heels – over to me, screaming the entire way.

“Shit,
Charlie, you’ll never believe it.” Her eyes were wide and full of excitement.

I
pulled myself up, dropping the half-full glass of bubbles onto the table.

“What,”
I said, laughing as she grabbed my arm and bounced agitatedly.

“They’re
here – holy fuck, they actually came out before curfew and are downstairs right
now.”

My
breath caught in my throat. I tried to swallow down the flash of nausea
assaulting me. I wanted to believe she was talking about One Direction or the
Biebs, but since there wasn’t actually a rule about them being out after
curfew, I knew it was not any humans that had her panties in a twist. It was
the ash.

I
dropped my eyes to my wrist. My slender gold watch was telling me that it was
far too early for those creepers to be out. So what the hell? Even though I
wasn’t hammered, I was regretting the heavy alcohol choice by now. I wanted a
clear head if I was going to be around the ash. They got the drop on me once.

Never
again.

I
realized I was clenching my fists, so I relaxed them and let Tessa drag me
across to the dance floor to get a closer view. Sure as shit, there they stood,
two tall, gorgeous men. One had dark hair and gave off a creepy vibe; the other
was a yellow blond and looked like a bad guy’s sidekick. The women surged
closer to them, some practically dry humping their legs. I shook my head. Suddenly,
Tessa ripped her hand from my grip and bee-lined it in their direction. Oh hell
no! She must be hammered. She wasn’t that stupid was she? Completely sober now,
I pushed my way through the gaggle of girls until I reached the front.

I
arrived in time to hear: “Tessa! With a T,” my best friend slurred.

Then
I realized that she was sitting on dark-haired creeper’s lap. Anger flooded my
chest. It was before curfew and she was drunk – this was so wrong.

“Tessa!”
I said in my best mom voice, gripping her arm and yanking her off his lap.

Now
that I was closer, my nose was assaulted with scents of copper and musk. Bad boy
glared at me with those goddamn black and silver eyes. The eyes that haunted my
nightmares.

“Hey,
relax, honey, we’re just having some fun. Right, Jessa?” His voice was all
smooth and low.

“It’s
Tessa,” I ground out. “And fun’s over.” I held Tessa against me. She felt like
a dead weight and I wondered if the alcohol was getting the better of her.

As
I went to turn around, his arm snaked out and grabbed my wrist, holding tight
enough to cut my watch into my skin.

What
the actual fuck?
Twice in one day.

My
vision went a little red then, thoughts flashing across my mind in rapid
succession. You know how you kind of wonder if you’re capable of murder?
Everyone has the wild thought on occasion. I had definitely wondered before.