Ash(2)

We made it to class just in time. I’d only managed to drag on some jeans and a tank-top, but lately my hair and skin had been doing some awesome stuff on its own, which was very useful during those late rushes to class. Tessa was next to me, propped up on her elbow. Her desk was empty of anything but her takeaway cup of sludge. Unlike me, she’d managed to style an outfit, fix her hair, and smooth out any flaws with her perfectly applied makeup. I had on lip gloss and mascara and that was an achievement.

“Do you think they’ll be in class today?” Tessa said as she turned her head toward the doorway.

I shrugged, trying to pretend I wasn’t also watching the door, but for a completely different reason. Two ash were normally in this class. They sat near the front, kept to themselves, and probably tried to ignore the fact that ninety percent of the females spent the hour staring at them. The ash were pretty much physical perfection. That’s of course if you ignored that fact that they were part bloodsucker. I watched the door hoping like hell they had been hit by a car today and would never make it to class again.

Two perfect heads of golden brown stepped through the door and moved toward their special seating. Fuck. A chorus of feminine sighs echoed through the room and I tried my best not to roll my eyes. Smug, gorgeous assholes. No car accident and the Hive hadn’t burned to the ground last night. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the room who hated the beautiful bastards.

“Settle down.” The graying professor stepped up to his lecture stand, dropping a bunch of paperwork onto the table. “Okay, so we’ll be picking up from chapter eight today…”

“I swear to God, Charlie, I would totally blood-whore myself for one of those Ash.” Tessa’s hazel eyes were hooded as she ran her gaze along the two elegant males.

“I seriously wish you would stop saying that. They’re animals, Tess. Who knows what they do to their donors.”

As if he’d heard me, the golden ash closest to us turned his head and fixed his dark eyes on me. All of them had the same eye color, black with a ring of silver right around the pupil. It was just one of the many things which set them apart from us. From humans. I refused to lower my gaze, sensing mainly curiosity from him, before he dismissed me and turned back to the professor.

I shuddered, counting slowly in my head to calm down. Those eyes reminded me of that night. When the nightmares came, it was always black with rings of silver. Tessa knew some of what had happened to me, but I hadn’t wanted to go into detail about the attack. Let’s just say the nightmare stories about vampires were not all fiction.

“You know, Charlie, we should be thanking the gods. They gave us a race of perfection and every single one is male.”

Tessa’s lecture was getting old. “Yep, they’re all male. Yep, they’re all gorgeous. Yep, they use humans as nothing more than living, breathing blood donors. The gods totally love us.”

Tessa rolled her eyes and finally shut up. It was a tired debate with us and she knew I was sick to death of hearing about them. Why the human government let those gorgeous freaks walk among us was lost on me. At least they kept the vampires secluded away. I shuddered at the thought of the creatures who walked the night. Ash might be gorgeous and strong and fast, but in my personal opinion, for pure freak-me-outness, they had nothing on the full-fledged vamps that sired them. It was weird to call them vampires; sometimes I felt like I was living in a fantasy movie. Of course, Anima Mortem Virus just didn’t have the same ring.

We all knew the history. A few centuries ago some rabid bats bit some villagers and gave them a virus that increased longevity, increased strength, improved skin elasticity – among other things – and depleted blood platelet count in the process. The virus allowed the host to live forever, but a constant influx of blood was required for the renewal of cells. It also killed the female reproductive system but not the males. Of course sperm would survive. Friggin’ men, they had it easy.

Tessa nudged me and I shook off my thoughts. The professor was glaring at me.

“I’m going to guess you don’t have the answer. Moving on.” He went back to rambling about how certain colors made you want to buy certain products. Ugh. Damn this class was boring. I stood up and slowly walked down the aisle to go to the bathroom, which would hopefully kill at least five minutes of his lecture. As I passed one of the golden-haired freaks, I noticed his body stiffen and his nostrils flare. His hand snaked out and grabbed my arm.

“What the crap!” I muttered, trying to wrench myself free, but he held on. He stared up at me, pupils pulsing, black and silver eyes flickering. He was taking in deep breaths, his jaw clenched.