“Well, I just wanted to introduce myself. Enjoy your run. Stay in shape, it will help with the training.” Then he left, white coat trailing behind him. It was sort of abrupt, his departure, but I was okay with that.
After this weirdness I didn’t feel much like running, unless it was back to my mom’s and away from the Hive. I took one last glance at the perfection that was Ryder and left to go back to my room. After showering and changing into a new jumpsuit – not a lot of options in here – I came out to find Jayden suited up and sitting on the bed lacing his sneakers.
“It’s training time. You should be paired with a trainer by now, right?” My roommate was nice. He was trying to help me through this, even knowing we might have to fight each other. The thought of having to kill him to survive made me sick.
“Right,” I lied. Lucas hadn’t mentioned a trainer.
Suddenly Jayden inhaled and his eyes did that weird little pulse thing. I froze. That freaky shit needed to stop.
Jayden swallowed. “Can I tell you something?” He was practically salivating.
Fear knotted my belly. I could only nod, my high ponytail bobbing up and down.
He paused. “There’s something about you. Your blood, your smell, it’s … irresistible.”
What the…? “That’s not normal?” I squeaked.
His eyes pulsed again and he shook his head. “No. Ashes don’t feed on other ashes, even ones like me that like boys.”
I laughed. “Well, maybe it’s because I’m the first female. The boys want my special blood.” I winked.
He swallowed hard. “No, it’s more than that. I just thought you should know. Watch your back. Anyone with less self-discipline is going to have a hard time restraining themselves.” He stood suddenly and crossed the room to the fridge, whipping out a bottle of blood and chugging it in one fast go.
Well, shit. Couldn’t a girl catch a break?
I followed Jayden through the barrage of halls and thoroughfares. The Hive was a lot like the way I pictured an anthill, tunnels zigzagging through the building and down into the ground. There were these huge industrial sized elevators at the end of each corridor which zoomed up and down the levels.
Training was on sublevel eight, which meant we were going underground.
There were five other ash in the elevator with us; they varied in size and shape. We all looked to be in our early twenties, the prime time for the ash gene to be triggered and the change to occur. No one spoke. Jayden nudged my arm in a comforting manner, but even he was quiet for once. When we were on the right level, it was a simple matter of traversing along the hall to reach the large double doors at the end.
My heart was pretty much lodged in my throat as I tried to imagine what the hell this training was going to entail. The males around me looked like they were being marched to the executioner or something.
I had so many unanswered questions. I had never much been interested in the Hive or any of its inhabitants, even before the attack. There were classes in school on the virus and the resulting vampires. It had been a long time since the very first case, and the human race was used to the bloodsuckers now; they were an integrated part of our history. But I purposely avoided those high school and college subjects. What did I care about the social structure of the Hive? Or the hierarchy of a race I was determined to avoid.
Fate, however, seemed to have a different plan for me, and now it was time to start information gathering. “Tell me about this Quorum,” I said to Jayden, startling him out of whatever eye-screw he was trying to do with a vampire who’d crossed paths with us. Flirt.
He turned those eyes with their sinfully long lashes on to me. “Girl, you are so fucked, and not in the fun way. You don’t know about the Quorum?”
I didn’t say anything, just kept my eyes locked on him and let my annoyance seep out. He held up both hands. “Got it, you’re a badass. Okay, so the Quorum is the council of vampires which lead the Hive and each Hive has their own Quorum. They are the strongest members of the ten houses.”
I did remember hearing about this. It had been a crazy time when the first strains of the virus emerged. Humans were falling ill, some dying and others becoming vampires. To save the population, the world leaders banded together, and went on a mass culling. They wiped out the infected animals and humans, but a small group of vampires managed to escape and hide away. They became the ten Originals. The founding lineage behind each clan, discretely turning humans and fathering ash.
“Are they still alive, the Originals?” I asked.
Jayden shook his head. “None of the Originals survived the first war with humans, but their lines live on. Each of the vampires, and ash, fall under one of the ten groups. A DNA test can tell which group you’re in, but they don’t waste money on that until you survive the culling. Each group has an elder vampire which leads, maintains order, and disciplines. These ten form the Quorum. Plus the token ash.”