Ash (6 page)

Asshole was still calling
me number forty-six. I picked up my speed, my lungs increasing as my legs
blurred underneath me. What can I say? I was competitive. As I caught up to him,
I was assaulted by the beautiful network of muscles that made up his back. He was
wearing a tank, but I still had plenty to perv on. Pushing myself harder, I
grinned as I stepped in beside him, matching pace. Yes! I was an
unicorn-ash-badass.

Ryder side-glanced at me.

“Getting slow, ash,” I
said.

At first his expression
didn’t change, but then, as he leaned forward a little and took off at some
sort of super speed, I swear the slightest of smiles lifted his lips. Dammit! I
was never going to catch him now, so I decided to slow my pace so I wouldn’t
fall on my face. No reason to give him any more reason to think I was a clumsy
idiot.

As we did another round
of the track, I noticed a newcomer was standing next to one of bench chairs, far
back under the cover, out of the light. It was a gorgeous vampire with bright
blond hair and fair skin. He had not been on the track when I started, but
there was no missing him now in his very white trench coat. H
e
was
watching me, gaze locked on with intensity, and I found my pace slowing as my
curiosity was piqued. He was tall and well-built, his distinct silver vampire eyes
swirling as they continued to track my movements. He was momentarily distracted
when Ryder stopped in front of him and gave a military salute. Words were
exchanged; their demeanor was friendlyish. Then the vampire pointed at me.
Oh
shit.
I stopped about twenty yards away, cautious as the blond started to
wave me over. Ryder spared me a quick glance before turning his back and taking
off down the track again.

This guy looked about
twenty-five and was watching me with an intensity that made me swallow hard.

I couldn’t exactly ignore
him. The vamps ran this world, so even though I really didn’t need any new
drama in my first real day in the Hive, I found myself slowly crossing the outer
lanes, stopping an arm’s distance away.

“Hi,” I said. 

The vampire gave me what
seemed like a genuine smile. “Hello, Charlene. May I call you Charlene?”

Hell no, you’re not my
mom. “Sure.” I needed to play nice. I had no friends here.

He extended his hand.
“I’m Lucas Belcroft.”

Lucas. This was the dude
Jayden had said was interested in me. Looks like I was about to find out why.
He held out a hand for me shake. I hesitated briefly, but the sense of
otherness which kind of freaked me out about vampires was not as strong with
Lucas. I took his strong, firm hand, and instead of repulsion I was met with a
light flutter in my stomach. I let go as soon as Lucas’s silver eyes began to
swirl.

“I wanted to make your
acquaintance for many reasons. And I am reaching out as a member of the Quorum,
the vampire council. We are all very intrigued by you.”

Yeah, no shit. Female ash.
Didn’t happen. Got the freakin’ memo loud and clear. “Yeah, I’m a little
shocked myself.” I noticed Ryder was eyeing us while running.

Lucas’ eyes dropped to my
chest for a fraction of a second, but then rested on my lips. Men, vamps or ash,
were all the same. “We have been in discussions since you were … discovered.
The rules and traditions stand for a reason, and there are no exceptions. You
do have to participate in the culling, but I will do everything in my power to
make sure you survive.”

There was a
possessiveness in his voice. Homeboy wanted this ash-unicorn bad, for what I
didn’t know. I was struck with an uncomfortable thought then, one which I
really should have had earlier but there had been already quite a bit going on
in my head.

My father was a vampire.

Not John, the soldier Mom
spoke of, who had bravely saved his men from a landmine. Nope, I had been sired
by a virus-infected bloodsucker.
Crap!
What if Lucas was my dad? That
would be super weird, because he was really hot and I had been checking him
out. Note to self: no more checking out vampires until I knew which one was my
daddy-o.

Seemed I needed to have a
chat with my mom. I wasn’t sure if that was allowed or not, but I was damn sure
asking the first chance I got. I focused on Lucas again.

“And why would you want
me to survive?”

He smiled again. Dude was
quite cheery for the undead. “I’m your sponsor. We all want our initiates to
survive.”

Okay, not exactly the
detailed answer I was looking for, but it sounded like the sponsor thing was
set. I wondered how it was decided. Did they just draw names out of a hat, or
had this Lucas specifically requested me?

“Well … thanks.” What the
hell else was I supposed to say? He wasn’t breathing or moving much and it was
starting to freak me out.

“Well, I just wanted to
introduce myself. Enjoy your run. Stay in shape, it will help with the
training.” Then he left, white coat trailing behind him. It was sort of abrupt,
his departure, but I was okay with that.

After this weirdness I
didn’t feel much like running, unless it was back to my mom’s and away from the
Hive. I took one last glance at the perfection that was Ryder and left to go
back to my room. After showering and changing into a new jumpsuit – not a lot
of options in here – I came out to find Jayden suited up and sitting on the bed
lacing his sneakers.

“It’s training time. You
should be paired with a trainer by now, right?” My roommate was nice. He was
trying to help me through this, even knowing we might have to fight each other.
The thought of having to kill him to survive made me sick.

“Right,” I lied. Lucas
hadn’t mentioned a trainer. 

Suddenly Jayden inhaled
and his eyes did that weird little pulse thing. I froze. That freaky shit
needed to stop.

Jayden swallowed. “Can I
tell you something?” He was practically salivating.

Fear knotted my belly. I
could only nod, my high ponytail bobbing up and down.

He paused. “There’s
something about you. Your blood, your smell, it’s … irresistible.”

What the…? “That’s not
normal?” I squeaked.

His eyes pulsed again and
he shook his head. “No. Ashes don’t feed on other ashes, even ones like me that
like boys.”

I laughed. “Well, maybe
it’s because I’m the first female. The boys want my
special
blood.” I
winked.

He swallowed hard. “No,
it’s more than that. I just thought you should know. Watch your back. Anyone
with less self-discipline is going to have a hard time restraining themselves.”
He stood suddenly and crossed the room to the fridge, whipping out a bottle of
blood and chugging it in one fast go.

Well, shit. Couldn’t a
girl catch a break?

I followed Jayden through the barrage of
halls and thoroughfares. The Hive was a lot like the way I pictured an anthill,
tunnels zigzagging through the building and down into the ground. There were
these huge industrial sized elevators at the end of each corridor which zoomed
up and down the levels.

Training was on sublevel eight,
which meant we were going underground.

There were five other ash
in the elevator with us; they varied in size and shape. We all looked to be in
our early twenties, the prime time for the ash gene to be triggered and the
change to occur. No one spoke. Jayden nudged my arm in a comforting manner, but
even he was quiet for once. When we were on the right level, it was a simple
matter of traversing along the hall to reach the large double doors at the end.

My heart was pretty much
lodged in my throat as I tried to imagine what the hell this training was going
to entail. The males around me looked like they were being marched to the
executioner or something.

I had so many unanswered
questions. I had never much been interested in the Hive or any of its
inhabitants, even before the attack. There were classes in school on the virus
and the resulting vampires. It had been a long time since the very first case,
and the human race was used to the bloodsuckers now; they were an integrated
part of our history. But I purposely avoided those high school and college
subjects. What did I care about the social structure of the Hive? Or the
hierarchy of a race I was determined to avoid.

Fate, however, seemed to
have a different plan for me, and now it was time to start information
gathering. “Tell me about this Quorum,” I said to Jayden, startling him out of
whatever eye-screw he was trying to do with a vampire who’d crossed paths with
us.
Flirt
.

He turned those eyes with
their sinfully long lashes on to me. “Girl, you are so fucked, and not in the
fun way. You don’t know about the Quorum?”

I didn’t say anything,
just kept my eyes locked on him and let my annoyance seep out. He held up both
hands. “Got it, you’re a badass. Okay, so the Quorum is the council of vampires
which lead the Hive and each Hive has their own Quorum. They are the strongest
members of the ten houses.”

I did remember hearing
about this. It had been a crazy time when the first strains of the virus
emerged. Humans were falling ill, some dying and others becoming vampires. To
save the population, the world leaders banded together, and went on a mass
culling. They wiped out the infected animals and humans, but a small group of
vampires managed to escape and hide away. They became the ten Originals. The
founding lineage behind each clan, discretely turning humans and fathering
ash. 

“Are they still alive,
the Originals?” I asked.

Jayden shook his head.
“None of the Originals survived the first war with humans, but their lines live
on. Each of the vampires, and ash, fall under one of the ten groups. A DNA test
can tell which group you’re in, but they don’t waste money on that until you
survive the culling. Each group has an elder vampire which leads, maintains
order, and disciplines. These ten form the Quorum. Plus the token ash.”

“Token ash?” I was
surprised about this.

Jayden’s shit-eating grin
increased. “Are you telling me that the most delectable, scrumptious piece of
ash you’ll ever lay your eyes on sat by your bedside for two days while you
were all blood-crazed, and you didn’t even go so far as to find out a single
thing about him
?
”

I let out a breath. He
had to be talking about Ryder. “Ryder is the ash representative on the Quorum?”

“Technically he is. Ryder
heads up the enforcers, and he is the scariest, sexiest, piece of—”

“I get the point,” I
interrupted him. And I also seconded his point, but one couldn’t forget that
he’d electrocuted, shoved, and dismissed me on more than one occasion. Ryder
might be a badass, but he was also mainly just an ass.

“Right, well, he is as
strong, fast, and lethal as a full-blooded vampire. Some say he might be a
direct descendant of an Original, not a watered down mutt like us. He is feared
and respected. He was an automatic vote for the ash Quorum seat. Although I
heard he almost never bothers to go to meetings. Too busy keeping the streets
safe from us crazy ashes.”

That’s what he’d been
doing that night in the club, keeping humans safe. Kind of raised my opinion of
him a little. 

“Number forty-six…”

It took me a few moments
to realize the high-pitched voice was calling my number. I swiveled to see a
female vampire striding with our group along the hall and toward the training
facility.

She had long, very dark
red hair. It was dead straight and rested against the curve of her butt. Her
eyes were silver of course, and she had them heavily lined in kohl, which only
enhanced the elfin beauty of her fine features.

“Yes…” I said with
caution. I wasn’t really keen on being separated out from Jayden right now.

“You have a visitor in
the Quorum chambers. This is not normally allowed before the culling, but Lucas
… he wanted an exception to be made for you today.” Her voice held a tinge of
something … sort of a mix of anger and jealousy.

My eyes flicked across to
Jayden, who shrugged as if to say “No idea, babe.” Was my mom here? Maybe
Tessa? With a flick of her head, the vamp chick spun on her heels and started
to stride the other way. She wasn’t tall, but she moved preternaturally fast,
and I hurried to catch up. There was no small talk as we crossed the hall and
took the elevator even deeper into the underground. Red wasn’t really clueing
me in on where these Quorum chambers were, but I swear the dial read Sub20. We
were deep underground, and I was going to have to work really hard to not think
about the amount of rock which was above me.

Stepping off, the halls
in this area were lit with fire lanterns up high in the smooth, rock walls.

“Stay close,” Red told me,
before marching off again.

I was starting to get
nervous. I should have stopped for a second and wondered if her words were
truthful before just blindly following her down here. For all I knew, she was
here to kill me and wanted to go somewhere a little less populated. Jayden
hadn’t seemed nervous or worried by her, but he was new to the Hive too, and
probably didn’t understand the politics that well.