Ash (12 page)

Whoa. This was … what the
actual fuck was going on here? Carter Atwater was my father and an Original.
Was that why he’d been in hiding and told my mom that things were rough for
him. How had he not died with the other Originals? And if my mother was right
about our Christmastime money deposits, he was still alive now. Something told
me I shouldn’t trust this knowledge to anyone. If they tried to kill him once,
they would do it again.

Lucas met my eyes as if
reading my train of thought. “Your mother didn’t say anything about still being
in contact with Carter, did she?”

Lie, Charlie, lie your
ass off
. I huffed. “Yeah, right. She was shocked as hell
about what I turned out to be. Said the guy screwed her and ran off.”

Lucas seemed like he
wanted more of an answer. “You know there was a fire and Carter’s body was
never actually recovered. You can tell me if he has contacted you. Some say he
might still be alive.”

My eyes flicked to Ryder,
who shook his head the tiniest bit.

I smiled at Lucas. “Trust
me, if this dude was alive, I would have you drag his ass to the Hive so I
could kick him in the nuts for ruining my life.”

Lucas smiled, but it
didn’t quite reach those silver eyes. “Alright. Let’s keep this all under
wraps. Keep training. Charlie, I’d like to have you over to my place for dinner
tomorrow night.”

My eyebrows shot up as
Ryder cleared his throat.

“I’d love to,” I said
with a fake smile. I trusted Lucas, but only to a certain extent. Still, there
was no reason to let him know that.

The next night I was summoned to the
fiftieth floor. Jayden informed me that this level held the penthouses. Lucas
lived the cushy life. I wondered what he’d been like as a human, before
becoming vampire and all powerful Quorum member. Maybe I’d find out tonight.

Lucas opened the door and
gestured for me to step inside. I crossed the threshold into his massive
apartment, and wondered for a moment why the Quorum members would want their
places up high with all that sunlight around. Made more sense for them to be in
one of the twenty sub levels. Of course, the moment I ventured a little further
into the room, my feet sinking into soft carpet, I understood exactly what the
draw was. Floor to ceiling windows spanned the entire side of his apartment,
and just like when I ran on the roof, the view was spectacular. He’d never see
the sun rise across the city, but maybe the moonlight was enough for him. I
guess it had to be enough.

Lucas’ place was very
open-plan, each room seamlessly blending into the next. The furniture was
expensive but simple, all creams and whites. Which was not a surprise
considering his love for that trench coat. Which he wasn’t actually wearing
right then, but still his slacks and button dress shirt were in shades of
white.

“What happens when the
sun rises?” I asked, taking in the wide expanse of windows which covered everything
from the river to the edge of the Portland.

“The same shutters close
over our floors.” He stood next to me, both of us at the window of his main
living area. “I could have taken one of the basement suites, but I already
mourn the loss of the sun. I don’t want to lose anything else.”

His words mirrored my own
thoughts from before. That was the most personal revelation I’d heard from the
reticent vampire. For the hundredth time I wondered why he had taken such an
interest in me. It felt like more than the fact I was an ash-unicorn – something
deeper. 

“Come,” he finally said.
“Dinner is almost ready and I don’t want it to get cold.”

I followed him through a
few more impressive rooms, catching a glimpse of the massive stainless steel
and marble-benched kitchen, before we ended up in a simply adorned medium sized
room. It held not much more than an eight-seater dining table, which had two
place settings made up on it. There was also an antique-looking hutch, which
was oddly out of place in his very modern penthouse.

“That was my wife’s.” He
must have noticed my interest – his words were so low I almost missed them, even
with ash hearing. “She loved it, took her months to restore it, and I just
couldn’t part with it … even after.”

My breathing went a
little ragged, matching with his. The usually cool, calm, and collected male
was leaking emotions all over the place. It was hard hearing that tone of loss,
and I wondered what had happened to his wife. What had happened to him? How did
he become a vampire?

As we took our seats
across from each other, I hoped that I might have some answers tonight. The
silence between us grew, but it didn’t really feel uncomfortable. I figured he
must have someone cooking, because there was no way for him to be here and in
the kitchen. Unless that was his superpower.

Nope.
An
ash male entered the room then, carrying a long tray which he placed gently
into the center of the table. He proceeded to lift the very heavy looking
silver-inlaid cover, and beneath was a veritable feast.

I sucked in deeply, the
scents of seafood and pasta wafting toward me. My stomach roared to life and I
had to restrain myself from actually launching across to fill my mouth with
that goodness.

Lucas chuckled. “I do so
miss that love for food. I pretty much just have blood now.”

I knew vampires could
still eat food, but they didn’t need to, and they didn’t particularly enjoy it.
Another ash entered then, and in his hands was a bottle of red wine. He showed
the label to Lucas and the vampire nodded. The ash popped the cork with a whoosh
of release, and the wine was allowed to breathe. Lucas filled both of our
glasses; the scent hit me immediately. It was all red grapes, sweet apples, oak
barrels and … blood. I straightened. Holy shit. They had alcohol with blood in
it? Why the hell hadn’t I known this before now?

He talked as he poured. “This
is a special blend that my company is manufacturing. It’s new to the market. I
was hoping we could be the testers tonight.” The silver in his eyes flashed at
me as he lifted his head and lowered the bottle to the table again.

I was intrigued. Lucas
not only was a Quorum member, which was a fulltime job on its own, he also had
a company that made cool things. Like blood alcohol. I reached for my glass,
the wine swishing against the sides a little as I brought it closer to my face.
My eyelids fluttered closed as the deeper tones of the scent hit me. I allowed
myself moments to breathe it in. Blood had such a tantalizing smell for me now,
that copper filled with spice and heat and life. Team that with rich grapes, the
juicy sweetness of red apples, and aged wine and, well, shit, I was pretty sure
Lucas had a winner here.

The first sip was a blast
of flavor. Every single one of my taste buds jumped to attention and started
screaming for more.

“What do you think?” My
eyelids flew open to find Lucas watching me closely.

“Un-freaking-believable.”
I almost moaned as I took another small sip. “I’ll take ten bottles.”

He laughed, flashing all
those white teeth, the slightest tip of fang visible. “You survive the culling
and you can have ten crates.”

Incentive enough for me.

The rest of dinner was relaxed. Lucas
chatted to me about the general life and rules of the Hive while I devoured
basically everything that wasn’t tied down. We finished the first bottle of
blood merlot before opening a second. This one was less fruity, and spicier, but
equally delicious. It was even giving me a little buzz and I wondered if maybe
the blood worked with the alcohol to give more impact to vampires and ash.

“So tell me about your
life before you were a vampire. How did you get infected?”

As my artlessly worded
questions left my mouth, the animation fell from Lucas’ face and I realized
that I might have pressed on a sore spot for him. The conversation before had
been light and impersonal, and I’d just gone straight for personal. I opened my
mouth to apologize and change the subject, but then he started to talk.

“I was infected in the
late 1800s – I’m not even sure of the exact date any longer. Back then the bats
had been culled, but the Originals had started to mass a decent number in their
clans. But they weren’t always successful at keeping control. Newly turned
vampires were driven to attack, like a bad case of rabies that can never be cured.”
He swirled the liquid in his glass; my eyes remained locked on him. “I was a
farmer, just a simple farmer. We grew wheat. My wife, Regina, she would stay at
home and raise our two sons while I worked from daylight to dusk. It was a hard
life, but it was perfect.”

God, this was harder to
hear than I expected, especially considering it had been a very long time ago.
But I could tell that for Lucas it was not long at all.

“One night I was out with
the plow. There had been storms that season and it was imperative I finished
the field that night. Generally, we did not stay out after dark. Everyone was
aware of the problem sweeping the human race, and caution after dark was always
advised.” He broke off then, ghosts of the past swirling in those captivating
eyes.

“You were bitten?” I
prompted.

He nodded a few times,
his motions jagged. “Yes, a female, she came out of nowhere, attacking me. I
managed to fight her off and in the struggle my horse took off dragging the
plow over her, removing the head and covering my bite marks with her blood,
infecting me. That was the only reason I survived. Well, sort of. I knew that
everything I loved and worked so hard to provide for was gone. I could never go
home to my family, I would kill them when the change happened and the bloodlust
hit. So I ran. I ran for the city, to the humans who locked me and others like
me away like science experiments. Luckily, technology was pretty sparse back
then, so after I grew strong enough to control myself, I escaped and finally
ended up in the Hive of those days, which was secreted away from humans.”

“You never saw your
family again?” I asked breathlessly.

He dropped the wine glass
onto the table. A few drops spilled, marring the brilliant white of his
tablecloth. “I did visit them one time, just to make sure they were doing okay.
The farmhouse was empty, deserted, and it had clearly been looted.” The depth
of his anguish and anger filled his low tones. “I should have known that they’d
be targeted, a single woman with two small children. I basically signed their
death warrants when I deserted them.”

Either way, his family
had been doomed.

“I salvaged her hutch and
a few other pieces before burning the house to the ground. I never found my
wife or sons. I still do not know what happened to them, and it haunts my every
single waking moment.”

Gods, and I thought my
story was horrible. I at least still had seen my mom and Tessa.

“That’s why you allowed Mom
to come and see me.”

Lucas swallowed, his
movements exaggerated as he worked to control his emotions. “You actually
remind me a little of my wife. She was as tough and beautiful as you are. I … I
knew you wanted to have a final goodbye with your mother, and it was within my
power to grant that.”

I reminded him of his
wife – it was all starting to make sense now. Lucas was a good guy, a good guy
who’d had plenty of horrible things happen. Even now, with the cold ache of the
vampire virus filling his veins, he was still being a good guy.

I reached across the
table and took his free hand. “Thank you. I will never forget everything you’ve
done for me.”

He returned my squeeze
once before letting go. “Do not die in the culling, Charlie. I will be very
unhappy, and I’d hate to have to start hurting the ash who hurt you.”

He would do it too. I
could see it in his eyes. He was not happy about me going into this battle. But
tradition was tradition, and not even a Quorum member could save me now. I was
going to have to save myself.

The next ten days passed in a blur of
training, blood hunger, and ass-kickings. And straight up, Ryder was doing
ninety percent of said kicking. I was getting a little bit better at fighting,
but if my fellow ash fought anything like Ryder, I was a dead woman. I was
starting to wonder if Ryder was punishing me for the revelations that day with
that doctor, where she’d spoken of the anomalies in my blood. He’d been riding
the shit out of me since then – pun intended – determined to turn me into a
ninja freak show, and he was dragging my aching butt out of bed all hours of
the day and night to do it.

A week ago we’d started
weapons training, though Ryder only trained me on one weapon, the samurai
sword. He thought it gave me the reach I needed on these big tall ash males. I
told him it was stupid to teach me to use one weapon, especially if we had no
guarantee that I would get the sword in my fight. He had said to shut up and do
what he said because he had a plan.

The culling was tomorrow.
One final day of training. And I was flat on my ass again.

“I can’t freaking
levitate, Ryder. If you throw another fucking knife at me, I swear to the
vampire gods I will find out where you sleep and I will sneak in and fill your
bed with spiders – the kind that bite and kill.”

The enforcer halted
himself mid-throw. Apparently he thought I lacked proper motivation to tap into
my supposed power of the fourth house of the Originals. I thought he lacked a
freaking soul, and was determined to kill me before I even made it into the
culling.

“Charlie, you have more
than a little untapped potential. I see it rarely, but it’s there. I’m
struggling with a way to break down this wall of clumsy incompetence you hide
behind. The culling starts tomorrow, and if you don’t deal with your shit you’re
going to die.” His broad chest heaved in and out as if he was struggling not to
completely lose his shit on me.

Wait, had he called me
clumsy and incompetent? What a bastard. I was trying my best. A surge of
emotion knocked into my chest, tightening it before it rose up in a burning
wave of righteous anger. I was so going to rip his arm off and beat him to
death with it. That would show him who was clumsy. I flipped to my feet and
leapt forward, ready to strike. The movements came easier, and I was finally
starting to understand why he’d drilled them into me day after day. In sparring
I could hold my own now, even with Ryder, but I still lacked deeper technical
training, which would be impossible for anyone to gain in such a short period.

I generally came at him
front on and quite aggressive, but this time I did something different. I swung
into his face, and right before I would have hit him, and he would have blocked
me, I dropped down to my knees and drove both of my closed fists into his gut.

The shock reverberated up
my arms and my hands ached instantly. There was not one ounce of fat on Ryder.
Hitting his abs had been like smashing my fists into a wall. But I had hit him,
and hard enough to stumble him back a little. I then swung one of my legs out,
and ignoring the current pain in my knuckles, kicked out and smashed into his
knee, hitting from the side and collapsing it in on itself.

The entire attack had
taken no more than three seconds. I was fast. Ryder had been trying to get me
to take advantage of my speed, and I was finally hearing his words. As he hit
the ground, I dived across the long length of his body and straddled him, before
slamming my fist down into his nose. He shifted his head at the last moment,
and I knew he could have halted my movement – I saw that in his black and
silver gaze – but he let me hit him, and it was this knowledge which stopped me
from slamming into his face again.

We stared at each other,
my breath heaving in and out as I fought for control. I knew I needed blood.
I’d been trying to stretch myself out longer between feedings. But I was at the
end. I wanted to bite Ryder so badly my teeth and gums were actually aching.

His expression was almost
gentle as he stared up at me. “There is a wild strength in you, Charlie. You
have beauty and brains. You need to figure out how to bring that all together.
If you do that, there is no one who could stand against you.”

Those soft words brushed
against me, and for a fraction of a second his eyes flashed pure silver. I
realized then I was still straddled across his muscled form, and needed to move
now. I blinked a few times, but my body didn’t seem to be responding.

Crap, Charlie, get your
ass off him. He’s already tried to kill you five times today.
My
pep talk wasn’t doing its job either. I had to touch him, I needed to taste the
skin on his neck. God he smelled so good. The way he stared up at me, before he
raised his hands to my hips. His grip tightened and I almost moaned at the
strength in his hold.

He leaned up, and as our
faces moved closer together, he shifted his shoulders and … lifted me to the
side. Disappointment flashed through me as I lowered my head and fought for
composure.

“I’m going to the feeding
room,” I blurted, stumbling to my feet and basically racing from the room. I
glanced back just before I crossed out of the gym, and noticed that Ryder had
moved across to one of the large bags hanging from the beams. He was already
smashing the crap out of it, in a series of attacks that were controlled and
smooth, leaving me breathless with jealously. I would never fight like him.

He snarled then, and in a
show of unprecedented power drove his fist all the way through, completely
destroying the bag and letting the seeds inside run out onto the floor.

That was all I got to see
before I was out of sight. I’d never seen Ryder lose control like that before.
He was always contained, but the pure fury as he ripped through that bag just
then had my pulse racing and my heart stuttering.

I knew I frustrated him.
But for some reason that had seemed more like he was fighting himself and his
own control. I didn’t understand Ryder very well. He was this strong, powerful
enigma, and I guess I had never stopped to think about his story. How long had
he been an ash? I knew we aged very slowly, not quite immortal like vampires,
but there was a long life in front of us. I had never seen Ryder much in social
situations. From the little I knew of him, he mostly hung around the other
enforcers in the sexy six, trained me, and went out on missions – though they dialed
that back during the culling period. They only contacted Ryder now when it was
something the rest couldn’t handle.

He was strong, he was
their leader, and I was starting to find it hard to tear my gaze from him when
we were in the same room together. I needed to get back to working on that
getting laid thing. I wasn’t easy or anything. I could count the number of guys
I had slept with on one hand, but lately I was having a hard time dialing down
my hormones. Tonight, right after I got me some blood and Tessa time – my
bestie was scheduled on the feed tonight – I was heading out to the underground
club, Base Level. It was embedded deep into the Hive on level three. Tomorrow
might be my last day on Earth – if I was called to the early culling fights –
and I was not going to spend it alone or crying in my bed.

Screw Ryder and his hot
and cold bullshit. I was a strong, independent, bloodsucking ash. I did not
need his sexy butt in my new life. It was confusing enough already.

I slowed my run as I
finally made it to the elevator, taking it to floor eleven. I only visited the
feeder room to see Tessa and stock up on blood. I still wasn’t cool with sucking
on a living person’s neck. When I entered the double doors, I went straight to
the fridge and grabbed three bottles, before ducking into my usual feeding
room. Tessa was sprawled back in the chair, her skin clammy and pale – though
she jumped up straight away and threw herself at me.

“Friggin’ hell, Charlie,
I’ve missed you so much.”

She stumbled a little in
my arms, and I grabbed at her to keep her on her feet, pulling back to see her
better. “What’s wrong, Tess? Are you sick?”

She waved me off. “No,
nothing like that, just…” She held a hand over her neck to cover the right
side. 

I must have been slow or
something tonight, because it was more than a few moments before I clicked in
to what the hell had happened.

“Who?” I demanded, my
hands gripping her biceps a little hard. “Who fed from you, Tess?”

No vampire or ash was
allowed to just randomly feed, which meant she had signed up for this shit – additional
feedings. Her round eyes widened a little and she dropped her gaze. I knew my
own eyes would be a blaze of silvery green, so I closed them to try and regain
control.

Placing my friend, with
her overly pallid skin, back in the chair, I ripped into the top of my blood
bottle. I was not going to be able to deal with this on an empty stomach.

She watched me warily as
I prowled across the floor. “Why would you sign up to be a second feeder?
You’re going to get hurt, Tess!”

Her lips crinkled into a
smile. “Babe, you worry too much. It’s not like you actually feed from me, and
maybe … well, you know, I might actually have a shot at being turned into a
vamp.”

The bottle fell from my
fangs and smashed onto the floor, spattering out the remains of blood. My jaw
hung open. “What … why … I don’t… ” I was spluttering away, trying to figure
out what to say to her. “Why would you want to be a vamp?”

Yes, she had always been
fascinated, but this was taking it a step too far. Tessa was officially a vamp
groupie.

Some of her usual fire
sprang back into her body, and she pulled herself up to meet me in a clash of
female pissed-off-ness. Her finger jabbed at me while she spoke. “I have been
here eight times in the past few weeks but have only seen you twice. You are
busy or injured, or basically living a fucking life without me. I can’t lose
you.” Her breath huffed in time to her finger jabs. “I know it’s next to
impossible to be turned, but I’m going to do my best. Besides, Blake and I have
been talking while I wait for you to show up or not, and he’s hot and sweet.
Plus, the feeding itself feels … amazing.”

Blake? I didn’t know what
to say. I loved this chick so much; she was my person. If I ever killed someone,
I’d call her to help me dispose of the body. I could not blame her for trying
to keep us together, but I needed her to stop.

“Tess, I love you, but
you can’t do this. The Hive is not a place you want to live. It’s rough, and
dangerous, and there’s a decent chance that you’ll get killed by some
overzealous vampire long before they will turn you. I need to know you are
okay, that you and Mom are out there living normal lives. It’s what gets me
through each shitty day here.”

“What about Ryder?” she
said, ignoring all the negative I was saying. “Seems to be something going on
with you two.”

I shook my head before
reaching across to grab another bottle of blood. “Ryder is my trainer, end of
story. He’s helping out Lucas, making sure I don’t die on my first day. He
doesn’t have any interest in me.”

He’d made that perfectly
clear.

“But you are interested
in him?”

I had told her a little
about my weird attraction to him.

“You should just go for
it, Charlie. Dive on that delicious piece of ash. Don’t wait for him to figure
shit out, you take what you want and don’t look back. There’s no way he doesn’t
love you a little. You’re hot as hell and funny and awesome. He’s secretly
crushing on you, I have no doubt.”

And that was the second
reason she was my person. Girl had my back no matter what. I ignored her Ryder
pep talk. I knew there was something between me and him, but he clearly had
some issues below the surface, something that held him back.

“So besides
Blake,
how’s
your love life going?” It felt like a million years since I’d lived with her in
our college room. It was really hard missing all the things in the human world.
I forgot about my old life when I was busy in my training bubble, but times
like this it hit me hard that everything outside of the Hive continued to go on
without me.

Tess and I talked for the next hour, which
was the total allotted time we had together. She mainly talked about her new
boy-toy Blake. I tried my best to dissuade her, but she said she’d be back no
matter what. I knew that meant for more than me. She was still going to be a
feeder. Dammit.

We also discussed my
weird blood results. There was still no more word on the cryptic “not an ash”
diagnosis and I had almost convinced myself that the vampire doctor was crazy. During
my dinner with Lucas he had assured me that her family would be safe and free
as soon as he knew she was keeping her end of the deal. He needed to make sure she
kept her mouth shut about my Original father status. Not that it mattered. I
apparently was the lamest descendent of an Original ever. No levitation here.

“Take care of yourself,
Tess.” I was trying to hold back tears as we hugged again. The vampire escort
was waiting not very patiently to take her out of the feeding room. “I’ll see
you next week.”

Her voice was rough. “You
better. If you die during the culling, I am going to burn the Hive to the
ground – I swear on Grandma Joan’s grave.”