Ash (7 page)

I had just about
convinced myself that she was leading me toward a fire-breathing dragon, or a
pack of pissed-off vampires who would eat the flesh from my bones while I was
alive, when she paused outside a large, ornate double door. There was an emblem
engraved into the door, and words written beneath, but in no language I’d seen.
Maybe some type of secret vamp language.

Red seemed to be waiting
for something. Finally, she tapped out a weird pattern and the doors silently
slid open.

“They’re waiting for
you,” she cryptically said, before fading off into the dimly lit tunnel.

Great…

I placed my hand against
the cool stone, and taking a few fortifying breaths, shoving the door back with
a hard push. If I was going down, I wouldn’t cower out here, I’d march in with
my head held high and confidence in my ash eyes. Never let them see your fear,
right?

It took me a few seconds
to adjust to the brighter room. More fire lanterns were scattered around. Maybe
it was hard to get electricity to run down here. There was also a massive
fireplace with a heavy mantel, which had a huge fire burning inside. The room
was circular, and in the center stood a heavy wooden table. It looked to have
been carved from the largest tree in existence, because it was a single piece
spanning at least twenty feet in diameter.

The room appeared to be
empty, no dragons or gang of crazy vampires, or so I thought until a familiar
head of very blond hair came into view.

My feet were moving,
stray tears rimming my eyelids as I dashed across the space.

“Mom!” I threw myself at
her, forgetting for a moment that she was much more breakable than I was.

She held me tightly, no
hesitation in her grip. It was the same as it had always been. Unconditional
love.

She still smelled like
lilac and spearmint, her favorite gum flavor, and despite the fact that I had
to push down my urges when I was this close to her neck, I managed to control
my desires and just enjoy having my mom here.

I pulled back, and we
both sank into one of the large chairs. I rested against the heavy wooden back,
which was intricately carved with an array of roses, that towered high into the
air.

“How are you here?” I
couldn’t tear my eyes from her, a little slice of normal in the last few crazy
days of my life. I had no idea how much I needed this. Seeing Tessa was one
thing, but my mom was everything.

“I needed to speak with
you, sweetheart.” Her face was serious; I didn’t like it. “I have to explain
why I never spoke to you of this. But I didn’t want you blindsided during the
culling.” Her voice wavered a little on that, but she plowed ahead. “You never
were very interested in this world, no matter how many times I tried to broach
it with you. There are so many things you don’t know, but the first one is that
I never married the man in the war photo, John. He was just a boyfriend, and
for a long time I thought he was your true father because girl ash don’t
exist.”

I leaned forward in my
chair, wondering where this story was going.

“I don’t like to speak
ill of the dead, but John was an alcoholic, and abusive.” She looked down
timidly at her hands.

Oh hell no. With that one
sentence, part of my world and soul came crashing down. That asshole in the
photo that I had always adored and loved had hurt my mother.

She went on: “When he was
deployed in the war I thought it was a good clean break-away for us. I would
write him a letter and end things. We were intimate the night before he left,
and afterwards he hit me again. This time there was no alcohol. This time his
excuses fell on deaf ears. I was done with being a victim.”

Okay, TMI. But still, go
mom.

“The next day he was
deployed and it was the perfect time to make the break. I felt so free, so glad
to be out of that destructive relationship. Of course, in an ironic twist of
fate, it was that very night I almost lost my life and all sense of freedom
with it.” Her brows drew together, a shine of tears at the memory glistened in
her brown eyes. “On my way home from class I was attacked by a rogue vampire.
Rogues were a little more common back then. The enforcers weren’t quite as
concerned about public opinion.”

Even though all of this
had happened a long time ago, my breath still caught in my throat. How was she
still alive?

“What happened?”

Those brown eyes softened
then, as if some wonderful memory had superseded the horror of her attack.
“Carter happened. He came out of nowhere and saved me. He fought the vampire,
and despite killing him, ended up quite injured himself.” She brushed back her
mess of hair. “I couldn’t leave him like that, no matter what the rules said,
so I took him home and patched him up.”

Mom was a nurse, and
would never ignore the plea of an injured person. What was she talking about
rules though?

“Carter was so different than
any man I ever knew. He was gentle with me. Caring.”

Shit, I was starting to
see where this was going.

She finished in her soft
voice. “That night, passion was high, and, well, you know how these things go.”

TMI times two. Thanks,
Mom.

“Carter and I were
inseparable for the next few days, and I realized that for the first time I was
in love. We’d already broken so many rules. What was one more?”

The pieces sort of came
together for me then. What human could have fought off a vampire and just ended
up injured? None. So that meant…

“Mom, are you saying…?”

She nodded. “Carter was a
vampire.”

Holy shit. Holy, holy
shit. Well, at least I knew my father wasn’t Lucas. ‘Cause that would have been
whacked out.

I heard a sniffle and
knew this story hadn’t been easy for my mom to share with me. But I was really
glad she had. I reached for her hand.

“It’s okay. I’m so sorry
you were with the Army asshole. I’m actually more grateful to know that my
father is a vampire than an abusive drunk.”

Tears sparkled in her
eyes.

“When I fell pregnant, I
wasn’t sure whose it was. Carter wasn’t able to visit me often. He said some
internal politics were shaking up the Hive and he might need to go into hiding.
He was special in the vampire world but he never told me why. Then I found out
it was a girl and I knew you were John’s daughter. I told Carter and he
promised to be around either way, but then one day … I never heard from him
again. Days after this, I got a letter from the Army saying John died in battle
and, well … I knew that it was just going to be you and me.”

One of those tears slid
down her cheek. Shit, this was heartbreaking. Carter was almost as big an
asshole as Army dude. Who left a woman he loved, even if she was pregnant with
another guy’s baby? It wasn’t like she cheated on him or anything.

“He’s probably dead,” I
stated.

But my mother shook her
head, her blond hair rippling in the firelights. “No.”

She said that with such
surety. There was definitely something else she wasn’t telling me. Before I
could press her harder, she reached forward and tucked a chunk of my hair
behind my ear. For a second the closeness between us and the distinct and
delicious smell of her blood distracted me. She pressed that same hand to my
cheek, and I knew she was about to drop something else big on me.

“Carter is not dead. Every
year on Christmas, since your birth, I get ten thousand dollars wired to my
bank account.”

I blinked a few times,
trying to remember if there had ever been any indication of these secrets that
littered my mom’s life. How could you know and love a person so much, and yet
not really know them at all?

“Forgive me for not
telling you all of this,” she choked out.

“Mom, of course I forgive
you. It’s okay.” Yeah, it wasn’t really okay, she’d kind of effed-up my world,
but there was no point mentioning that now. The past couldn’t be changed and I
would never stop loving her. We hugged for a long time before I finally pulled
away. She looked into my eyes and chuckled.

“You have his eyes now.
The crazy dancing green-silver.”

That was interesting. I
was already curious about the difference in my eyes to the other ash, so much
more silver. And she was right, this weird dancing green, like an arc of
electricity, zagged through it.

My mom leaned in very close.
“We could run away. I could give you blood. I don’t want you going through the
culling.”

My heart pinched at her
words, her so very tempting words. But I knew there was no way. I needed blood
six times a day. Not to mention my crazy eyes. Humans would flip the hell out
and my mom would die of blood loss. “Mom, that’s sweet, but I don’t think we
would last very long on the run.” 

I had already scoped the
plump throbbing vein in her neck more than once. My mom sighed. “Well, this
Lucas person seems to care about you. He sought me out and snuck me in here to
see you.” She raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you could use your
female gifts
to make sure he takes care of you.”

Oh my God. She did not
just said that. “Female gifts? Are you whoring me out?”

She laughed, and just
like that some of the heavy emotional stuff lifted and we were back to making
jokes. “I’m saying he’s in a place of power and you’re a good looking young
lady.”

I plugged my ears. “La la
la. Oh my God, Mom.”

She shrugged. “That’s all
I got. Those were the only two plans I had.” Her voice shook.

I sat up straighter and
grasped her hands in a strong grip. “Well, I have a plan.”

She looked hopeful.

“I’m going to get some
big, buff, scary looking ash to teach me how to be a badass, murdering fighter,
and I’m going to survive the culling with my own two hands.”

My mom smiled weakly as
if she didn’t believe that was possible. Great. Team Charlie, party of one. A
knock at the door jarred us from the moment. The stone barrier swung open. Red
was back. Her graceful catlike poise had me instinctively leaning in front of
my mother in a protective gesture. Home-girl looked ready to pounce at any
moment.

“Number forty-six, your
time is up. The human must leave the Hive now. No more visitors until after the
culling, when you have earned the right, like everyone else.” She practically
spat out the last words.

My mother and I shared a
look.
Bitch
. And the next person to call me number forty-six was getting
a fat lip. 

I hugged my mom and took
one last sniff of her lilac and spearmint scent. If I closed my eyes I could
almost pretend for a moment I was back home. Then, with my heart heavy and my
eyes aching, I stood and followed Red. I turned back to meet my mom’s eyes one
more time, as another vampire appeared out of nowhere to escort her away.

I struggled to get my
emotions under control the entire time I followed Red. Vamp-bitch dropped me
back off at the double doors on level eight, the training room. The only sound
in the space was her high heels clicking off back down the hallway. I took a
moment to gather myself, to focus.

Training. Right. I was
going to train to fight for my life. Everything about this felt wrong. One
moment I was an upstanding human citizen and the next I was being booted to
bloodsucker-ville to fend for my life. Effed up. Well, maybe I wasn’t exactly
upstanding, but I wasn’t a complete drain on society. Now I felt discarded. Where
the hell were the police? Couldn’t I call 911 and get bailed out of this? Hah!
Yeah right. I was infected, no one wanted me.

“Are you going to stand
out here all day or do you actually plan on learning something.”

I tried not to jump as
Ryder’s deep voice broke through my thoughts. Dammit, he’d snuck up on me again.
I turned to glare at him, startled to see he was with another ash, tall and pale
with short, military-style dark blond hair. God these men were gorgeous. I
wasn’t sure how long my hormones could be stemmed here and have no release. My
fear and distrust used to keep the interest at bay, but I was slowly becoming
desensitized to their freak ways and now only seemed to zero in on their
hotness. Plus, I was starting to see that blaming an entire race for the
actions of two assholes, was pretty darn unfair.

When I didn’t answer,
Ryder introduced blondie. “This is Zeke, your trainer.”

I scanned Zeke up and
down. He looked buff, like he might be a deadly weapon, but nothing like Ryder.
“Hi, I’m number forty-six.” I shook his hand, giving Ryder a bright smile.
Laced with venom of course.

The corners of Ryder’s
lips curled slightly.

Zeke nodded as he
released my hand. “Do you have any training at all?”

I stood taller. “Yes,
women’s self-defense, shooting range, and I’m a runner.”

Zeke huffed as if that was
nothing. “Well then, let’s see what you got.”

He opened the double
doors and I was assaulted by the smell of leather, blood, and sweat. For the
first time, the noises from within were audible. The room was soundproofed.
There was a lot of grunting going on, especially as most of the ash were being
slammed onto the mats that littered the open gym floor. Looking up, there were
huge exposed rafters and a forty-foot ceiling. Surrounding the fight-zone were
a few spectators sitting in bleachers suspended above the gym on some upper
floor viewing area. Great, a crowd.