Ash(19)

“Token ash?” I was surprised about this.

Jayden’s shit-eating grin increased. “Are you telling me that the most delectable, scrumptious piece of ash you’ll ever lay your eyes on sat by your bedside for two days while you were all blood-crazed, and you didn’t even go so far as to find out a single thing about him?”

I let out a breath. He had to be talking about Ryder. “Ryder is the ash representative on the Quorum?”

“Technically he is. Ryder heads up the enforcers, and he is the scariest, sexiest, piece of—”

“I get the point,” I interrupted him. And I also seconded his point, but one couldn’t forget that he’d electrocuted, shoved, and dismissed me on more than one occasion. Ryder might be a badass, but he was also mainly just an ass.

“Right, well, he is as strong, fast, and lethal as a full-blooded vampire. Some say he might be a direct descendant of an Original, not a watered down mutt like us. He is feared and respected. He was an automatic vote for the ash Quorum seat. Although I heard he almost never bothers to go to meetings. Too busy keeping the streets safe from us crazy ashes.”

That’s what he’d been doing that night in the club, keeping humans safe. Kind of raised my opinion of him a little.

“Number forty-six…”

It took me a few moments to realize the high-pitched voice was calling my number. I swiveled to see a female vampire striding with our group along the hall and toward the training facility.

She had long, very dark red hair. It was dead straight and rested against the curve of her butt. Her eyes were silver of course, and she had them heavily lined in kohl, which only enhanced the elfin beauty of her fine features.

“Yes…” I said with caution. I wasn’t really keen on being separated out from Jayden right now.

“You have a visitor in the Quorum chambers. This is not normally allowed before the culling, but Lucas … he wanted an exception to be made for you today.” Her voice held a tinge of something … sort of a mix of anger and jealousy.

My eyes flicked across to Jayden, who shrugged as if to say “No idea, babe.” Was my mom here? Maybe Tessa? With a flick of her head, the vamp chick spun on her heels and started to stride the other way. She wasn’t tall, but she moved preternaturally fast, and I hurried to catch up. There was no small talk as we crossed the hall and took the elevator even deeper into the underground. Red wasn’t really clueing me in on where these Quorum chambers were, but I swear the dial read Sub20. We were deep underground, and I was going to have to work really hard to not think about the amount of rock which was above me.

Stepping off, the halls in this area were lit with fire lanterns up high in the smooth, rock walls.

“Stay close,” Red told me, before marching off again.

I was starting to get nervous. I should have stopped for a second and wondered if her words were truthful before just blindly following her down here. For all I knew, she was here to kill me and wanted to go somewhere a little less populated. Jayden hadn’t seemed nervous or worried by her, but he was new to the Hive too, and probably didn’t understand the politics that well.

I had just about convinced myself that she was leading me toward a fire-breathing dragon, or a pack of pissed-off vampires who would eat the flesh from my bones while I was alive, when she paused outside a large, ornate double door. There was an emblem engraved into the door, and words written beneath, but in no language I’d seen. Maybe some type of secret vamp language.

Red seemed to be waiting for something. Finally, she tapped out a weird pattern and the doors silently slid open.

“They’re waiting for you,” she cryptically said, before fading off into the dimly lit tunnel.

Great…

I placed my hand against the cool stone, and taking a few fortifying breaths, shoving the door back with a hard push. If I was going down, I wouldn’t cower out here, I’d march in with my head held high and confidence in my ash eyes. Never let them see your fear, right?

It took me a few seconds to adjust to the brighter room. More fire lanterns were scattered around. Maybe it was hard to get electricity to run down here. There was also a massive fireplace with a heavy mantel, which had a huge fire burning inside. The room was circular, and in the center stood a heavy wooden table. It looked to have been carved from the largest tree in existence, because it was a single piece spanning at least twenty feet in diameter.

The room appeared to be empty, no dragons or gang of crazy vampires, or so I thought until a familiar head of very blond hair came into view.

My feet were moving, stray tears rimming my eyelids as I dashed across the space.