by Leia Stone
“I don’t need magic.” I could smell the faintest metallic scent on his lips. He’d recently fed.
I tried to focus as he took a step back. “Put your arms out, like you’re flying.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but managed to simply sigh and do as he said.
“Resist,” he commanded as he applied pressure to my arms, pushing them down with ease.
“Again.”
I resisted him as hard as I could, but my arms still fell easily.
He nodded, his chestnut hair sweeping across his eyes. “Your left arm is stronger. On top of three times a day training, I’m recommending twice a day weight training. I’ll have Jared train you. He loves his weights.” I knew Jared was one of the sexy six. The blond Australian. I’d only ever seen him from across the way, but he definitely had impressive biceps. Still, that was a lot of training.
“When do I sleep?” I challenged Ryder.
“When you have survived the culling.” His serious tone wiped the attitude off my face. Swallowing roughly, I nodded. The instinct to survive was strong in me and this guy was willing to help me. The least I could do was give it my all.
“I’m going to teach you a five step sequence. This sequence will be the only thing you do, three times a day for the next week. You will be so sick of it by the end of the week, you will be doing it in your sleep.”
“Wow, you really know how to sell your services,” I muttered.
He ignored me. “Left jab, right hook, left leg kick, drop and sweep.” It sounded like a chant almost.
“Watch me,” he commanded.
“Left jab.” He lightly pushed his left hand out and brushed my chin.
“Right hook.” His right hand swept around and lightly touched my right temple.
“Left leg kick.” He took his left leg and slowly brought it up to touch my ribcage.
“Drop.” He dropped to the ground. “And sweep.”
From a crouched position, his leg snaked out and swept my legs out from under me. I fell back on the mat, my teeth clacking as I hit the ground. I had totally not expected that, since it was simply supposed to be a demonstration. He stood and looked down on me.
“You’re a dick. You know that, right?” I waved away his hand.
He dropped his arm back to his side. “Would you rather have a dick teach you to stay alive or a nice guy babying you through training?”
Shit, the dick had a point. As soon as I was back on my feet, Ryder walked over to a wall and wheeled out this big-ass punching bag figure of a man. He put it right in front of me and stood like a sentinel next to it.
“Ready to sweat?” he rumbled. I forced myself to focus. It was really unfair that the unique rumbly quality of his voice totally threw my equilibrium off.
Taking my position, I began the sequence he showed me. I was unable to sweep the heavy mannequin, but I assumed we would work on that later. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to return the gesture from before and sweep Ryder on his ass.
Every time I punched, he intercepted and adjusted my hold, or twisted my arm. It made me feel like I didn’t know shit about fighting. I grit my teeth and kept going. After twenty minutes of this my muscles were screaming at me to stop, but I wouldn’t give Ryder the satisfaction of seeing me quit.
An hour later of non-stop “five step program,” I heard the door creak open and glanced across to see Lucas. Vamp was still fully dressed in a suit and his white trench coat. He was hot, but I was starting to think he was a pimp in his spare time, or a Vegas card shark.
“How’s our girl?” he asked, crossing toward us, smiling the entire time. I locked in on his beautiful face, appreciating the fallen angel look he was rocking. Hey, I was female and he was hot, and thankfully not my dad.
“Eyes forward.” Ryder’s voice was cold again. What was this guy’s problem?
With a loud exhalation, just so he knew I was annoyed, I started up the sequence again. Ryder crossed the mat to meet Lucas off to the side. They started to chat, but in a tone too low for me to hear. Left jab, right hook, left leg kick, drop and sweep. It was irritating me already. I couldn’t imagine three times a day for a week.
God, help me not die of boredom.
Dinner for Jayden and I consisted of a trip to the feeding room during our scheduled time. I had told Tessa only to meet me once a week, and we were still days away from that, so I didn’t check with the receptionist for any scheduled feedings. I grabbed a couple bottles of O-negative and we left the feeding hall and made our way to the entertainment section. This was on a higher level of the Hive. Level forty-four. I followed Jayden to a plush lounge. Live music filled the space, low and jazzy. Soft green velvet couches circled the room; on a dais stood a baby grand piano. A sexy and voluptuous vampire with long golden brown hair was crooning out a sultry song as a man played on the piano.
No one came near us. The jumpsuits did their job of keeping the ash who had yet to survive the culling separate. We were nothing more than numbers.
We found a free lounge and sank into it. Jayden guzzled his blood, wincing as he banged his elbow on the side of the chair.
“You healing okay?” I asked him.
He’d been training separate from me, with the other male ash, and it was already starting to get brutal. Ryder had assured me that our training would continue to be different times from the rest. That way none of them could ferret out my weaknesses before the fights. It was under two weeks until the culling and everyone was freaking out. I’d trained twice already today, not to mention weights, and all I could think about was that stupid five-step program. One thing was for sure, those movements were going to be stuck in my head for a long time to come.
“Yeah, I’m sore but okay,” Jayden answered, tilting his head back, the low lights shining across his perfect, dark skin. “Word got around that we were attacked and somehow survived. It’s raised the odds on us, moved us toward the end of the culling schedule. So of course every ash and their dick have decided to take me out early.”
I sat a little straighter. “I should be training with you. You need me in your corner.” As little use as I might be, I could watch his back. “Fucking Ryder has me doing some stupid five step movement. I need weapons training. I need to know how to rip an ash’s arm off and beat him to death with it. No five steps are going to help with that.”
Jayden’s dark eyes flashed as he opened his eyelids, and then he was laughing – throw-back-his-head-until-his stomach-ached kind of laughing. “Girl, I could not have asked for a better roomie.” It took him a few moments to compose himself. He even had me joining in his laughter; it was contagious. He finally pulled it together. “You should be grateful. Ryder is the shit. He is a scary mother and there is no one in here who would take him on. Whatever he is teaching you, you learn it until your brain bleeds. It will most probably save your life.”
As if his words had conjured up the man himself, I sensed a dark gaze on me, and as I twisted to the side, my eyes clashed with a set which were looking quite silver at the moment. There was something between us, a spark. A moment happened then that was hard for me to describe, but all I knew was that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. If he’d have beckoned me right then, I’d have gotten off my chair and hightailed it over to him. Which was not a feeling I had ever experienced before.
“Ever noticed that you and Ryder both have eyes which are a hell of a lot more vampire than ash?” Jayden was watching our exchange, and the boy was pretty much fanning himself as he grinned.
Ryder broke the spell, turning to one of the sexy six, and I was finally able to catch my breath. Wait! What had Jayden said?
“Vampire eyes?” I asked, letting my confusion release. “I have ash eyes. Only a little more intense.”
Jayden nodded. “You do, even though your silver is a lot more defined than the others – and sometimes when your emotions are charged they get very silver, with this splash of green. It’s almost … alive.”
I was guessing right now
they were very silver, as he put it.
“I’ve seen the same thing with Ryder. It’s almost as if the pair of you hold a little more of the virus in your DNA than the rest of us.”
Was that possible? I wasn’t sure what Jayden was talking about. They had tested my blood and I was an ash … right? I couldn’t actually remember if they had given me those results or if it was just assumed because, well, what the hell else could I be?
I took an extended sip of my blood, and almost against my will my eyes flicked back to where Ryder had been. He was gone. Some of the other enforcers lingered around the wide, wooden bar, but no tall, dark, and broody to be seen.
I noticed that a group of ash, all wearing jumpsuits, had just walked into the room. A few of them exchanged looks before strolling across to where Jayden and I sat.
“Something tells me there are a few alliances going on before the culling,” I murmured, sitting forward in my seat, the bottle of blood forgotten as I prepared myself. Surely they wouldn’t start something here in a room filled with ash and vampires.
Jayden straightened also, and without saying a word both of us jumped to our feet. We would not be taken sitting down. The three male ash, two brunettes and a rather scrawny dirty-blond, paused about eight feet from us. A sense of hesitation came across them, and they exchanged another glance before turning and fading off into the crowd.
“Hell yeah,” I said, “seems our reputation has gotten around.”
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I suddenly knew that it wasn’t our reputations which had sent those ash fleeing. I swung my head around, only to be visually assaulted by a very sharp-set of fangs. Lucas towered over me, his white trench glowing softly under the lights in this dim atmosphere.
“I need you to come with me, Charlie. Something has happened.”
My immediate panicked thought was of my mom, but I was pretty sure that no one in the Hive cared or monitored the loved ones left out in the human world. It had to be something else. I’d just seen Ryder … so who else was there?
I took a step toward Lucas, before stopping and flicking my head back to Jayden. “Hey, are you going to be okay? I don’t want anyone to jump you while I’m gone.”
He just gave me that cheeky grin and waved me on. “I’ll be fine, you go and do your thing. I’ll see you back in our room.” The smile faltered a little as his eyes shifted across to the vampire at my side. Jayden was pretty up on the politics in the Hive and he knew Lucas was a big deal. All of the Quorum members were. This was not a request I could refuse, but he was worried for me all the same.
I wondered if I should be a little more worried myself. For someone who did not trust easily, who used to genuinely have a hate for anything to do with the Hive, I had come around awfully quick. But something about Ryder and Lucas gave me a sense of security. Like I knew they would not deliberately screw with me. Jayden was the same, and I was going to go with my gut on these three.
Lucas was silent as he led me through the corridors and into the lower levels again. As we stepped off the elevator, I recognized the zone. I was back in the whitewashed hospital wing, which was apparently on level two. I hadn’t paid attention to the level the last time I was here. Shit … what was I doing here? My heart rate increased again.
“Mom?” I gasped. Even if it was not a logical worry, I still had to ask. Lucas didn’t answer immediately. I breathed deeply, trying to slow the rapid pulse of my blood, before grabbing at his trench coat. I was prepared to make him tell me what the hell was going on.
The vampire halted, surprise lighting up his eyes as I pulled him closer to me. We locked gazes for an extended moment, and just as I was about to shake him for information, he leaned closer to me.
“Your friend is right, your eyes are very silver when you feel strong emotions.”
Clearly he had been stalking me even before those ash had approached us.
“And your mother is perfectly fine. We just need to run a few more tests. The first ones were inconclusive, and without the results I cannot ascertain your lineage. It is needed for the culling. I would like to do this quietly before the rest of the Quorum get wind of it.”
My lineage? As in who my father was? I knew his name, but for some reason instinct kept me silent on that. I realized then how close we were, my hands still tangled in his coat. I could see every facet in his silver eyes, which seemed to be swirling and pulsing in the fluorescent light. My grip loosened on his trench coat, and as I stepped back he smoothed down the creases I’d created. He seemed a little shaken, almost mesmerized in a manner, but before I noticed anything further he was back to normal.
“Come,” he said, continuing along the path.
I tried not to breathe too deeply as I followed. Something about the disinfectant smell in the air of hospitals turned my stomach. And with developed ash senses, it was a hundred times worse. I hadn’t noticed it as much the last time I was here – probably because I was too freaked out with the whole “your-mom-banged-a-vampire” revelation. This time though I was seeing everything. Why the hell were there so many rooms on this level? Was it really necessary? Surely, with our advanced healing, hospitals were only needed for those occasional ash who popped up out of the woodwork.
“Hey, what happens when a human receives the virus?” If my question startled Lucas, he didn’t show it. “How come some take a really long time to turn, and isn’t it illegal? How are new vampires still being made?” The longer I spent in the Hive, the more I wished I’d taken the classes on vamps in school.
Lucas paused outside of a door, one of the few that didn’t have a massive viewing window. “It is illegal to make new vampires without Quorum permission. If you want to turn someone, you must apply. We grant very few of these. We must monitor our populations growth, and keep from starting another war with the humans.”
Right, they didn’t want to outgrow their food source or the Hive. I shuddered. I also knew there was a special branch of the human military devoted strictly to keeping vampire and ash at bay. We lived only because the humans allowed it. Nothing could stop them if they wanted to drop a nuke on the Hive in the middle of the night. On every Hive in the world. The vampire rights groups were the only thing keeping the fragile peace between our two races right now.
Lucas continued to answer my questions, and I had a brief thought of why he was so forthcoming with information. Probably this was all common knowledge for anybody who had actually attended the Virus 101 classes.
“The virus is generally fast acting, but we have known of some cases where it was dormant for years.”
“And ash…” I prompted.
“Strictly forbidden, but we understand that sometimes things are outside of the humans’ control.” Ugh, was he talking about rape? “So we allow a small number of ash to survive each year.”
Yeah, they were regular saints. The culling was their way of taking care of the problem without actually getting their hands dirty. It really didn’t seem fair that the majority of vampires were allowed to live, but ash were culled like freaking animals.
I tried to dial down some of the simmering anger which was always close to the surface. “Why are there no female ash?” Lucas’ eyes lingered on me for a few long moments. “I mean besides me.”
“The virus destroys much of our reproductive system. Female vampires are unable to have children. No eggs remain intact. For the males, only the sperm which carry the Y chromosome survive. Which makes your existence all the more unusual.”
He was telling me that even science dictated that my existence was impossible. So how the hell was I an ash?
Apparently question and answer time was over. He opened the door and gestured for me to step through first. There were two vampires dressed in lab coats waiting for me on the other side. They stood on either side of a chair, each holding a stack of charts.
“Please have a seat, Charlene,” said the very blond female. She was all sharp angles and pointy nose, interesting to look at, but not beautif
ul. There was more variation in vampires than in ash. Vampires were turned from humans, so they still retained much of their human looks, just all smoothed out. Ash were actually grown from mutated sperm, so it was ingrained into their DNA. Therefore, they were sexier.
I didn’t like being surrounded or towered over, but in a room of three vampires I was not going to be able to fight myself out. Might as well do what they wanted. Lucas gave me a small smile, as if he’d heard my inner thoughts. I realized that the second vampire, the male with rows of black braids tightly woven to his head, was talking to me.
“…initial DNA test was inconclusive. Something must have tainted the sample, so we will need another one.”
“What do you have to do?” I asked, suspicious. Mom always said my college major should have been investigating, not marketing.
“Cheek swab, hair sample, and we will also need some blood. We need a detailed DNA sequence to find your ancestry and place you in the proper house of ten.”
I swallowed, but forced myself not to react. “Sure, poke away,” I finally said.
I wasn’t sure I quite believed their story, but I did not have a choice here. At no point had any of them asked my permission, so I knew this was part of the Hive protocol. Or maybe just for me because I was a special girl-ash.
The doctors were fast – benefits of the vampire virus. After swabbing my cheek and taking some hair, they pricked my finger. The moment my red blood beaded at the tip, the blond vampire inhaled deeply and hissed, her fangs extending.
An unusual scent slammed into me, and I realized it was my blood. What the hell was up with its potency? Shit, I almost wanted to bite myself. Lucas frowned and grabbed the woman’s arm. I scanned each one of them as their eyes pulsed silver, green, silver, green.
I quickly wiped my bleeding finger on the test strip and placed it in my mouth. An odd taste washed across my tongue, but my finger healed before I could really sense why it was strange. Lucas led the female out of the room, and returned alone. He was staring at me like I was a complicated chess game. What Jayden had said about the allure of my blood was true, even for vamps.
