“No!” I screamed. Desperation flooded through me – I would not lose Jayden here today. I would never give up on my friend like that, and I knew he would never have given up on me. I had to make it there in time.
The heat that had begun before, after hearing Ryder’s words, started to burn in my center, like a forest fire which had just been doused with an ass-ton of fuel. I sensed that this was what everyone kept harping on about – my special blood, the unusual test, my genetic linage from the fourth house. This was what burned inside of me. Everything about my life started to make sense then, the reasons I was different. I took off to give myself a proper speed for launching, and without a second thought bent down and sprang up with all of the strength I had. I had planned on trying to jump in large leaps, closing the distance fast, but apparently the fire had a different plan.
I freakin’ flew, like some sort of strange bird, across the arena. The crowd gasped, and a weird sort of dead-air silence fell over the fight. That’s right, bitches. Levitation. I worked hard to land close as possible to the ash who was hurting my friend. Dude hadn’t even looked up; he didn’t know death stalked him from the air. But he was about to find out. I came down hard, knocking into him, throwing the asshole off of Jayden, the pain in my leg roaring back to life with an intensity that had my vision flashing with black dots.
I wobbled for a second, breathing deeply. Not the time to pass out, no matter how much I wanted to. Neck biter jumped up, and I was relieved to see Jayden was alive – clutching his bleeding throat but alive.
Neck biter circled me like a lion about to strike. Anger was coming off him in waves. I forced myself to envision how I would kill him. Then of course, the moment I did that I started raging at myself. This entire situation was screwed up. Why the hell was I having to become a murdering monster? Because the vampires needed to conserve space for their huge luxury Hive apartments?
Neck biter lunged, but I was ready – I was so ready. I might not want to kill him, but I wanted to end this. I dodged and threw out a high kick to the side of his temple. He wobbled and I dropped to my knees, stabbing him in the stomach. Not a kill shot, but a debilitating one.
He folded over and I took the chance to tackle him to the ground, straddling him, his hands pinned under my legs as he clutched his bleeding stomach. I couldn’t meet his eyes as I brought the dagger up and slid it straight under his chin and into his neck. Ryder had shown me many times the best ways to kill and debilitate quickly, information that had been very useful during the culling, but which no twenty-one-year-old should ever have to know.
I had no choice. I told myself that over and over. I had no mother-effing choice. But I still hated myself for it.
He started bleeding out, and I clenched my thighs to keep him from lifting his hands and stanching any of the blood. It was only that he was weak and injured already that I’d even had a chance. If Lucas hadn’t used his money and influence to ensure I was one of the last fighters … fuck this! This was so wrong. Tears lined my eyes as the last of my innocence died. I wasn’t Charlie anymore, that girl who liked to check out boys at Starbucks and get mani-pedis with Tessa…
It was inevitable of course. I had to harden all of my soft edges if I was going to survive my new life as a tasty Nutella unicorn, but it still pissed me off.
The ash beneath me ceased to breathe, and stopped moving, and I stood up to the roaring crowd as the buzzer sounded. I threw my dagger on the ground and met the eyes of my new society. Then I raised both hands and gave them all the middle finger, turning in a slow circle to make sure they all saw. Fuck you crazy assholes and your sadistic game. My gesture was met with mostly glares and a few sparse chuckles. Yeah, glare on, freaks, I didn’t give a shit.
I turned to Jayden, relieved to see he had wound a shirt around his neck and was sitting up. Together we left the arena, never looking back. Ryder came out of a side entrance and approached me with a solemn face.
“You did it.”
I could only nod. I had just fought for the right to live in a society that I wanted nothing to do with. Yay. Life was great.
Chapter 7
It had been a week since the culling and life in the Hive had completely changed. We were given ID badges with our actual names. Jayden and I received a nice two-bedroom apartment that happened to be down the hall from Ryder and the enforcers. Level thirty-three. We got to wear normal clothes and were assigned shitty jobs. Jayden worked the front desk at the feeding center and I helped in the communications room. I got to dispatch Ryder and his enforcer team to different situations that got called in. It was hella boring and I would much rather be going to the actual calls and enforcing, but I guess it was fine for now. The nightmares from the culling were also starting to ease. The fact that I’d ended lives and had to fight to the death still weighed heavily on me, but last night I’d actually slept five hours in a row. First time since that day.