Ash(61)

As if I’d conjured him with thought, a figure stepped out of the shadowy entrance and strode across to the bar. I almost dropped the mic, my palms suddenly sweaty and mouth dry. It was Ryder. He’d actually showed up. Our eyes locked and the rest of the room fell away.

What power did this man have over me?

He hadn’t looked away and I was barely singing anymore, totally forgetting the lines to a song I had sung a thousand times before. Our moment was broken then as a jostling almost knocked me off the stage. I swung around to find an ash behind me. He was clearly wasted as he jumped around and sent a few pelvic thrusts my way.

I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or horrified, but his dancing was borderline obscene, so I had to laugh. Oliver took control of the situation by throwing a lemon wedge at the interloper, which actually knocked him down. Glancing back up, my eyes zoomed back to the find Ryder leaning sexily up against the bar, eyes still on me, like he had not removed them for even one moment. Oh my. His expression was doing all sorts of hot things to my insides, and there was something different about him. Like he had less walls around him. Was he drunk again? Vampire moonshine seemed to be his warrior juice with the ladies.

A female waitress approached him but he waved her off, continuing to stare. Hot damn, was I sweating? This was intense. The song ended and Jayden flicked his eyes to Ryder and raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged and left the stage with him. The typical thing to do would be to walk over to the hot guy that had been staring at you. But typical didn’t work for me, so I followed everyone back to the table, squeezing in next to Jayden. Kyle left us then and my gaze followed him as he approached Ryder. The head enforcer removed his eyes from me to give Kyle a bro hug.

I finally had a breather from the intensity that was Ryder, and a butt-load of air whooshed back into my lungs. It was like I couldn’t breathe when Ryder locked me in his gaze. The force was scorching, and my belly heated at the naughty thoughts running through my head.

Jayden fanned himself. “Woo it’s getting hot in here! What’s up with Mr. Tasty?”

Oliver smacked his arm. “Hey, I thought I was Mr. Tasty.”

I shrugged. “Maybe he’s drunk.”

A tall dark ash approached our table with a red drink and set it in front of me. “Hey, beautiful.”

Not interested, buddy.

I stood quickly. “Oh, I was just going to find the bathroom.” I walked away quickly, making a run for the girls’ bathroom.

I walked down the dimly lit hallway and shouldered the door, then stood in front of the mirror. I took a moment to stare at my reflection. As always, the first thing to capture my attention were my eyes. They were just so weird and it never got normal to see silver instead of my original brown – not to mention the way they swirled and held such an intense light. Just another thing which was gone from the old Charlie Bennett’s life.

I turned on the water and washed away some of the stickiness from my drink, all the time thinking of Ryder. What was up with him? Since the first day I met him, he’d been my knight in shining armor, stepping in and saving me. He’d saved me from hurting my mom, brought me into the Hive, trained me to survive. Why? Because it was his job? Or something more?

My body heated as I recalled drinking his blood. That had probably been the single most intense and confusing moment of my life. And I so wanted to do it again. I ran fingers through my hair, yanking at the tangles in frustration. I was so confused! I didn’t get confused about guys, I went for the one I wanted and didn’t have a problem.

Seriously, Charlie…

Was I really standing in the bathroom mooning over a guy? Okay, back to reality. Plan: get kissed senseless tonight by a really hot ash and forget Ryder. I’d give him no satisfaction in seeing the way he tied me up in knots. He was clearly still hung up on Molly, his fiancée, and I couldn’t compete with her. She would forever and always be the woman he lost. I had enough pride to know that I deserved better than that. I wouldn’t be second best, not even for Ryder.

Crossing the bathroom floor with quick even strides, I opened the door and ground to a halt, almost smashing into the very man who was dominating my thoughts. Ryder was leaning against the wall, one hand in his pocket, the other rubbing across his five o’ clock shadow. Sweet baby Jesus. All of my previous reasoning flew out the door as I was assaulted by all of his hotness.

“Dance with me.” He offered his hand.

Wait, what? Just as I had made the decision to give the chase a rest, he was stepping in. Not to mention that I had asked him to dance before and still hadn’t washed off the sting of that rejection. I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.