Ash(80)

The doors opened and we stepped inside. One button on the panel, labeled “pit.” Ryder hit it and the elevator made its way down.

“So,” I asked, “the pit is what exactly?”

Ryder looked at me, seemingly thinking about his answer. “It’s the Hive’s version of jail.”

Kyle snorted. “More like a mixture of, jail, solitary confinement, and torture.”

Ryder and Kyle exchanged a grin. I felt a moment of queasiness at the mental images those words provoked. I must have paled, because Ryder stepped a little closer to me, his heat warming my cool limbs.

“You can still back out,” he said.

I swallowed down my fear and stood taller, squaring my shoulders. “I’m fine.”

The slightest of smiles tipped up the corner of his lips. Nice to know I could amuse him.

The elevator ground to a halt and opened to reveal a long hallway. Before we even stepped out I was hit with a wall of stench. It immediately had me gagging. Since becoming an ash I’d learned to separate out various smells, and right now I was surrounded by blood, sweat, and urine – plus a completely disgusting concoction of bodily fluids. To add extra ambiance to the stink room, there were distant but drawn out screams echoing across the stone chamber.

We walked slowly down the hall to a man sitting behind a reception desk. He was a vamp, with a hard, lined face, and gray hair. Vamps didn’t age, so he must have been infected at an older age. This is where the Hive stuck old people, I guessed.

“Hey, Marty.”

Ryder shook his hand and the man nodded, standing swiftly, looking surprised. “You bringing her in?”

Ryder shot me a side glance before chuckling, “No, she’s training. I’m here to release Vincent Crow early. Quorum’s orders.”

Marty nodded. “Good thing too. He’s been going crazy, screaming about humans and rejecting blood.”

Ryder frowned. “He hasn’t been here long enough to do that much damage.”

The old vampire shrugged. “Everyone’s different. The pit wears us all down. He’s in cell 56H.” He turned to a machine and ran Ryder’s card key through it. Once we had clearance, the three of us stepped further into the pit, leaving Marty behind.

We walked down a series of twists and turns before stopping at a small door marked 56H. The screaming was much louder now, coming in from all directions. It was especially strong from inside Vincent’s room.

I started to differentiate the sounds out, and realized he was screaming words.

“You don’t understand! I need food and ... water.” His voice sounded strained, weak but still in a screaming pitch.

Ryder banged hard on the door. “Vincent Crow! Your sentence has been suspended early by order of the Quorum.” Ryder plugged his keycard in the small door and it popped open with a click. The space they kept the prisoners in was tiny and I wasn’t prepared for the dirty, half naked body of Vincent to come tumbling out.

We all gasped at what we saw. Vincent was little more than skin and bones. He looked like a victim from a wartime concentration camp. As he rolled over, I could see bloody infected cuts along his back and side. Why wasn’t he healing? Did the pit stop that somehow?

As his face came into view, my hand flew to my mouth. The once beautiful vampire was gone. Stress and wrinkles marred his eyes. He had frizzy hair, blotchy skin. He looked … human.

His eyes flew open as he focused on me, recognition lighting them up. He pointed a bony arm at me. “She’s … the cure,” he rasped.

Holy Fuck. My hand flew to my neck as the memory of that night assaulted me. How long ago was it? A week? Two? He bit me and then … and now … the man before me was a frail human, starved of food and water, given blood when he clearly had no need for it.

Ryder took a step closer and made a few out of character gestures. “Fuck,” he said, which was also out of character.

Before I could speak, or even think about what the hell was going on here, Ryder whipped out his gun and shot the man right between the eyes.

To a vampire that would have done nothing but hurt and piss him off, but this man was human. It was more than enough to end his life. I jumped, a scream ripped from my throat. Ryder had just killed a man, just like that without thought or consideration.

Shit … I knew Ryder. He only acted like that when he was protecting his men or me – it had been to protect me. I was in so much trouble.

Ryder ignored me for the moment, looking at Kyle. “We need to hide the body.”

Kyle looked shaken, but nodded.

I dropped back against the wall, my breathing ragged, my heart seeming to skip a few beats as it tried to keep up with my racing pulse. It was finally penetrating my brain now, the prisoner’s words. The reason Ryder had lost his shit and killed a frail human.