by Leia Stone
We walked slowly down the hall to a man sitting behind a reception desk. He was a vamp, with a hard, lined face, and gray hair. Vamps didn’t age, so he must have been infected at an older age. This is where the Hive stuck old people, I guessed.
“Hey, Marty.”
Ryder shook his hand and the man nodded, standing swiftly, looking surprised. “You bringing her in?”
Ryder shot me a side glance before chuckling, “No, she’s training. I’m here to release Vincent Crow early. Quorum’s orders.”
Marty nodded. “Good thing too. He’s been going crazy, screaming about humans and rejecting blood.”
Ryder frowned. “He hasn’t been here long enough to do that much damage.”
The old vampire shrugged. “Everyone’s different. The pit wears us all down. He’s in cell 56H.” He turned to a machine and ran Ryder’s card key through it. Once we had clearance, the three of us stepped further into the pit, leaving Marty behind.
We walked down a series of twists and turns before stopping at a small door marked 56H. The screaming was much louder now, coming in from all directions. It was especially strong from inside Vincent’s room.
I started to differentiate the sounds out, and realized he was screaming words.
“You don’t understand! I need food and ... water.” His voice sounded strained, weak but still in a screaming pitch.
Ryder banged hard on the door. “Vincent Crow! Your sentence has been suspended early by order of the Quorum.” Ryder plugged his keycard in the small door and it popped open with a click. The space they kept the prisoners in was tiny and I wasn’t prepared for the dirty, half naked body of Vincent to come tumbling out.
We all gasped at what we saw. Vincent was little more than skin and bones. He looked like a victim from a wartime concentration camp. As he rolled over, I could see bloody infected cuts along his back and side. Why wasn’t he healing? Did the pit stop that somehow?
As his face came into view, my hand flew to my mouth. The once beautiful vampire was gone. Stress and wrinkles marred his eyes. He had frizzy hair, blotchy skin. He looked … human.
His eyes flew open as he focused on me, recognition lighting them up. He pointed a bony arm at me. “She’s … the cure,” he rasped.
Holy Fuck. My hand flew to my neck as the memory of that night assaulted me. How long ago was it? A week? Two? He bit me and then … and now … the man before me was a frail human, starved of food and water, given blood when he clearly had no need for it.
Ryder took a step closer and made a few out of character gestures. “Fuck,” he said, which was also out of character.
Before I could speak, or even think about what the hell was going on here, Ryder whipped out his gun and shot the man right between the eyes.
To a vampire that would have done nothing but hurt and piss him off, but this man was human. It was more than enough to end his life. I jumped, a scream ripped from my throat. Ryder had just killed a man, just like that without thought or consideration.
Shit … I knew Ryder. He only acted like that when he was protecting his men or me – it had been to protect me. I was in so much trouble.
Ryder ignored me for the moment, looking at Kyle. “We need to hide the body.”
Kyle looked shaken, but nodded.
I dropped back against the wall, my breathing ragged, my heart seeming to skip a few beats as it tried to keep up with my racing pulse. It was finally penetrating my brain now, the prisoner’s words. The reason Ryder had lost his shit and killed a frail human.
To keep this secret. To keep me safe. Because I was the motherfucking cure for vampirism.
The next few days passed in a blur of stress and panic. I basically hid in my room, expecting at any moment the Quorum were going to arrive and haul me off to my public execution. Of course, I probably should have trusted Ryder when he’d pulled me aside right after we left the pit area and promised that he would take care of it all. That him and Kyle would wrap everything up so that no one found out about the vampire I’d cured.
Because we all knew what would happen if the vamps figured out I could cure them. I was as a good as dead.
“You need to get that lovely ass out of bed and shower or something,” Jayden yelled through my door, about to leave for his shift in the feeder floor. I hadn’t been at my job for a few days, but since no one had smashed in my apartment looking for me, I guessed Ryder had that covered also.
I sighed into the silence. Jayden was right. I needed to get out of here. Staring at the walls was driving me insane, and it didn’t answer a single question I had. I just needed to stay busy until Ryder returned.
I dragged myself up, threw on some sweats and took the elevator up to the roof. A run was what I needed, some sun, some fresh air. Some time without vamps who maybe didn’t yet know there was a ticking time bomb under their roof. No wonder the Sanctum had been hired to find me. Someone knew there was something strange in my blood. Maybe they didn’t know exactly what it was yet, but how long before they figured it out? What would the humans do if they found out? Did my blood do anything to ash? Oh God, I was in deep shit.
My feet slapped against the track, my body falling into its old running patterns, my muscles enjoying the stretch and burn after so many days of inactivity. Just as I was rounding up for my tenth lap, a blur caught my attention. I spun to the left, paranoid as usual, but didn’t see anything. Turning back to the track, I gave a little shriek at the mountain of man standing right in my path.
As I skidded to a halt, I tripped over my feet and tumbled straight at him. He opened his arms and caught me with ease, and in that moment I felt a sense of peace which had been missing the past few days.
“Ryder,” I said, my voice low and muffled against his shirt. “Is everything okay?”
He pulled me closer, his strong arms lifting me further into his body. He lowered his head right next to my ear. “I promised you I would take care of it, at the moment no one knows of you being the cure, and I plan on keeping it that way for as long as possible.”
I pulled my head back so I could stare into his eyes. “So what do we do now? What do I do now?”
As the slight breeze tousled his dark hair, a rakish grin crossed his features, and I realized how badly I’d been missing him. Even when we fought our feelings, he’d still always been around.
“Have dinner with me, Charlie?”
It took me a moment to realize what he’d just said. Holy shit! Ryder had just asked me on a date. I blinked a few times, trying to conceal my excitement. Getting up on my tiptoes, I pressed my lips against his. The kiss was brief but electrifying. I loved that even with everything hanging over our heads – the Sanctum, my vampire cure blood – Ryder still wanted to take me on a date. He couldn’t have said a more perfect thing to me right then, and I knew we would deal with the rest when it came. I pulled back slightly, our eyes still locked on each other.
“Yes,” I said. “A thousand times yes, Ryder.”
Acknowledgments from Jaymin:
As always, thank you to my family for being perfect. You love me even when I'm a cranky, stressed out writer, and show me every day that I am blessed in a million ways just to have you in my life. Thank you to my beta's Andi and Marice for taking the time to read and comment on Ash. I appreciate you more than you know. Lastly a huge thanks to my BAFF Leia, writing this book with you was beyond awesome. Even though we're both strong willed and have definite ideas of how to write our characters, it was pretty much seamless writing Ash together. We make a wicked team and I can't wait to do it all over again. Love you girl!
P.s Extra huge thanks to all of you amazing readers. We love you guys. <3
Acknowledgments from Leia:
I’m so thankful to my fans who suggested I read one of Jaymin’s books. It started a friendship that I have no doubt will be lifelong, BAFF forever. Ash started as an idea which grew over 2,000 Facebook messages and then emails and finally this finished project. I’m grateful to my family
for supporting my writing which means watching my kids, helping with dinner and a hundred other things. To my beta’s Bridgett Zaidi and Priscilla Whitenight for your super-fast reading and awesome insight. Jaymin, we make one hell of a team! Bring on book 2.
Books from Leia Stone
Matefinder Trilogy (Optioned for film)
Matefinder: Book 1
Devi: Book 2
Balance: Book 3 (Jan 16 release)
Hive Trilogy
Ash: Book 1
Stay in touch with Leia: www.amazon.com/author/leiastone
Facebook: www.facebook.com/leia.stone/
Books from Jaymin Eve
A Walker Saga - YA Paranormal Romance series (complete)
First World - #1
Spurn - #2
Crais - #3
Regali - #4
Nephilius - #5
Dronish - #6
Earth - #7
Supernatural Prison Trilogy - NA Urban Fantasy series
Dragon Marked - #1
Dragon Mystics - #2
Sinclair Stories
Songbird - Standalone Contemporary Romance
Hive Trilogy
Ash - #1
Stay in touch with Jaymin: www.Amazon.com/author/jaymineve
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JayminEve.Author
