I would never forget what the vampires had forced me to do, but for now I was going to bide my time. I couldn’t change anything yet, but one day I wanted to give it my best shot to end the culling. I was relieved to know that even as a full-fledged member of the Hive, vampires were still not around much. I wasn’t sure what those suckers did in their spare time – stuck to their own levels of the compound probably – but either way I was much more comfortable with ash now. Which was good, since that’s all I ever saw.
Thank God for emails from my mom and Tessa, some much needed female interactions. They’d been more than relieved to learn I had survived the culling, and both were happy to know that I was applying for permission to go back to my college classes. As an ash of course. I would have to sit in a special section and not with Tessa, but it would be nice to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Of course, I wasn’t allowed back for a year. That was how long new ash were monitored. Which left me bored and edgy in the Hive. Cell phones didn’t work in lower levels of the Hive, so for daily communications Tessa and I had to email each other. I smiled as I saw an email pop up.
‘Clubbin’, read the title.
Hey bitch,
I miss your blood drinking ass and now that you’re not on ash probation, I thought we could meet up at Club Shade. Blake invited me, I will stay out after curfew. Please come, I miss your ability to down an entire bottle of tequila. Don’t dress like a boy, show the goods.
P.S invite Ryder, I gotta see this guy in person.
Love,
Tessa
My smile grew larger. I glanced over my shoulder. The communications room was pretty empty right now. Just Markus, the Scottish enforcer, and my current communications job trainer.
“Hey, Markus, what’s the protocol for new ash going out during curfew hours?”
He gave me a look that said I might not like the answer. “For the first year, all requests go through Ryder.”
Ugh. This monitored for a year thing was going to get old real fast. I drummed my nails on the table top and then stood to go find the elusive ash. He had just gotten back from a call where one of the eleven new ash that survived the culling had tried to run away. He hadn’t made it far, of course. Ryder was very good at his job.
I knocked on the enforcer locker room door.
“Come in,” Ryder said.
I opened the door and had to keep my jaw from dropping as Ryder was standing before me wearing only a white towel. His skin still had droplets of water beading and rolling down. Good God, this man was trying to kill me.
“What’s up?” he said as he pulled on a black t-shirt. I followed the movement as it rolled over his tan delicious body.
In the short time since we’d stopped training together, I had almost forgotten how perfect Ryder was. Shit, okay, I hadn’t exactly forgotten, more like I made myself to think of him as only my friend and an enforcer. No one wanted to lust after someone who was not interested, no matter how many blazing looks he threw my way. I needed to meet up with Tessa … or meet a nice ash ready to settle down. Ugh, no, not an ash. A human maybe … screw the rules. It had definitely been way too long since I had had a boyfriend.
I stared at his mesmerizing eyes, the silver so prominent tonight. I wondered what emotion he was feeling strongly. “Just wanted to see if I could meet Tessa – my best friend who is human – at a night club tonight. During ash curfew hours of course.”
He took a moment before answering. “I don’t know … you’re new, and the Quorum brought a shit storm of questions down on Lucas after your levitation incident at the culling.”
Apparently it was rare for a new ash to tap into their houses special skill like that. Thankfully, the questioning had been brief, but the Quorum were now “keeping an eye on me”.
I forced myself not to lower my gaze. I wouldn’t beg, but I had to make him understand. “I need this.”
It was either he let me out or I really would start begging him to take that shirt off again so I could gawk at his perfection.
His chiseled jaw actually softened. “Okay, I’m off duty tonight. I’ll go with you. I don’t want any trouble.”
I gave a little excited jump and wiggle. “Thank you! Can Jayden come?”
He threw his hands up. “Sure, invite all the newbies. I love to babysit.”
I threw him a grin. “You’re not such a bad guy after all.”
He returned my grin with a withering glare. “You can go now so I can finish getting dressed.”
I sighed and left, trying not to imagine Ryder replacing the towel with pants. Stupid pants. What use were they anyway?
I pretty much bounced the entire way back to my room. This was what I had been waiting for since the moment I collapsed at my mom’s place – time to feel normal, to pretend for just one night that I wasn’t some weird, mythical creature that needed bottled blood to live. Now that I had survived the culling, I was hoping for a lot more normal moments in my life. I wasted no time smashing into Jayden’s room in our apartment.