Ash (26 page)

Authors: Leia Stone,Jaymin Eve

Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult

“You can still back out,”
he said.

I swallowed down my fear
and stood taller, squaring my shoulders. “I’m fine.”

The slightest of smiles
tipped up the corner of his lips. Nice to know I could amuse him.

The elevator ground to a
halt and opened to reveal a long hallway. Before we even stepped out I was hit
with a wall of stench. It immediately had me gagging. Since becoming an ash I’d
learned to separate out various smells, and right now I was surrounded by
blood, sweat, and urine – plus a completely disgusting concoction of bodily
fluids. To add extra ambiance to the stink room, there were distant but drawn
out screams echoing across the stone chamber.

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.