Ash (Hive Trilogy Book 1)

by Leia Stone

  Jayden extended his hand. “Come on. I have something to make you feel better.”

  I took it and let him help me up. The room spun for a minute.

  “A margarita?” I asked, and he chuckled.

  I followed him out of our room and into the long hallway. We journeyed along the corridor and got into the elevator. When he pressed the ground floor button, I had a burst of insight, and excitement started to tingle in my blood. Were we going outside? Please oh please, I missed the sun, trees, air…

  He saw my face and chuckled. “Just because the vamp bitches can’t handle sunlight doesn’t mean we should stay cooped inside.” He was as flamboyant as ever.

  “Yay!” I hung onto his big bicep, giving him a side hug. I was so used to the outdoors. Oregon had so many gorgeous lakes and rivers and trees, it was impossible to stay inside when that beauty beckoned you. The Hive was nice, but there were no windows. Everything was closed except at night. It made me feel stifled and I wanted some freedom. Just for a while.

  Jayden led me out of the elevator near where another ash sat as receptionist. Guess vampires couldn’t be this close to possible sun exposure. My roomie signed some type of log. I leaned over his shoulder and saw that he had put our numbers, twenty-one and forty-six, and the time and date.

  The receptionist raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Be back in an hour,” he said.

  We nodded and I wondered what happened if we weren’t back in an hour. The windows near the outside had the roll-down shutters like the rest of the Hive, so when Jayden opened the door and the sunlight hit me, I was temporarily blinded. Raising my arm up to shield my eyes, I walked outside.

  Within moments my eyes adjusted and I almost cried. A large strip of forest lay before us, thick tall trees with green moss growing up the trunks. Bushy green ferns and fallen logs littered the forest floor. Even though it was cold, the scents were still strong … the rich soil and earthy foliage. I sighed. Home.

  Jayden began to walk and I silently followed him. I noticed a few other ash sprinkled around. Glancing over my shoulder, I was blindsided for a moment by the high wire fence that surrounded the Hive, and on the other side a human guard station. No one came in or out of the Hive without a record of it. Of course, the fence reminded me of that night. I remembered gripping it as I was wrenched past the empty guard station. No one had been around to hear me screa—

  I cut those thoughts off again. I would not live in the past any longer. Somehow I had this moment to enjoy the feel of the life-giving sun on my skin, and I was taking it without regret. Twigs and branches snapped under my feet as I followed Jayden. My headache was gone. The sunlight and fresh air had finished up the healing which the blood had started.

  Jayden walked to a huge fallen tree trunk and sat down as I took a seat next to him.

  We sat in comfortable silence. “Thank you,” I whispered. “This was just what I needed.” He rested a hand on my knee and smiled, but didn’t say anything else. My heart swelled and also sank at the same time. There was no way I could fight Jayden in the culling. Even to save my own life. This whole culling situation was bullshit.

  “Spit it out, girl.” Jayden must have seen that I was wrestling with something.

  I chuckled. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  He nodded as if he understood. “I had a really hard time in middle school when it was apparent that I was different.”

  God, middle school was awful. I had braces, weird boobs, and a fascination for rap music. I couldn’t imagine being gay on top of all that.

  He winked at me. “Right, so I guess I understand the position you’re in. You’re very different. It makes me think of myself when I had no friends and no one to understand.”

  My throat tightened with emotion. I wasn’t prepared for Jayden’s honest reply. I squeezed his hand, but before I could respond, a loud snap of a twig behind us caught my attention. Just as we were spinning to see what was up, a steely voice cut through the tranquility. “Well, well, if it isn’t the queen and the unicorn.”

  Jayden and I jumped up. Three large ash were stomping towards us. I scanned their jumpsuits, able to make out the smaller numbers which were stitched into the upper right side of their chests. Numbers eleven, three, and thirty-seven. Two had black hair, and number three was a redhead.

  Jayden turned to me. “Am I the unicorn?”

  I nodded. “Of course you are, you have magical eyelashes. Besides, I’ve always thought I was a queen.”

  One of the black-haired boys bent and scooped up a thick, sharp branch. Straightening, he glared at us. “You know it’s common practice to thin out the weak ash before the culling.”

  I very much doubted that. The vampires wouldn’t like to lose their special type of fight club entertainment. Still, as they advanced on us, it didn’t seem like these ash cared much. I swallowed hard, knowing that any hopes I had of us not getting jumped had just went up in flames.

  Jayden bent over and pulled a knife from his boot. Damn son!

  “Who you calling weak, bitch?” Jayden’s voice had lost all gayness and was pure deep hardass. I decided he was my new BAFF. Best ash friend forever.

  Jayden positioned himself in front of me as I grabbed a big a rock with a sharp point. I was more likely to injure myself with it, but I had to have something.

  The redhead scanned me with droopy eyes and a sloppy grin. “Let’s kill him first and then have some fun with her.”

  Fear ran through me as my grip on the rock tightened. I was feeling seriously pissed at my mom for gallivanting around with Carter right about now. I should be with Tessa scoping hotties at Starbucks, not this. Jayden lunged as two of the black-haired ash went for him.

  The redhead snaked around him and came right for me. I was ready. I used the self-defense technique of “never let them get their hands on you,” skirting quickly to avoid his grasp, before managing to fling the rock straight at his forehead. It hit with a dull thud, and my strength was more than I expected as the skin split across his brow-line. His features hardened.

  “Bitch!” he roared, stumbling for me.

  His hands grasped my shoulders and he hauled me up and slammed me back against the tree. I cried out as I felt a crack in my side. It felt a lot like a broken rib or two.

  Number three’s eyes were pulsing as he stared at me, his fangs lengthened. I remembered what Jayden said about my blood being irresistible. I didn’t know what happened when an ash bit another ash, and I didn’t want to find out.

  Falling back on the best defense women have had since the dawn of time, I kicked him in the balls, hard, and he let me go briefly. I slid down to the ground, groans escaping as my entire body protested. This was definitely too soon since my fractured skull. I fought through the pain, knowing I had to get to my feet. This redhead dick would be coming at me again. And sure enough, his snarling face was lunging toward me when suddenly his body stopped and like … disappeared. What the hell? My side and head screaming in pain, I dragged myself up and came face to face with Ryder. Wearing a cold, menacing look, he pointed a sleek black gun at the redhead’s face and pulled the trigger. The snapping of the bullet made me jerk. Holy shit. Right between the eyes. Ryder had just killed someone like it was no big deal. I averted my eyes from the body. I knew that red had just tried to kill me, but still, his dead body was not something I wanted to see.

  Holstering his gun, Ryder stepped toward me, arms scooping me up to hoist against his body. I struggled against him, wanting to walk on my own. I didn’t like to be carried around like a damsel. Plus I would not look any weaker in front of the other ash. Ryder stared down at me for a few extended beats, his breathing deep, eyes full silver. Eventually he settled for looping an arm around my waist and letting me use him as a very muscular crutch. My ribs and head continued to protest as we stepped away from the tree. Once I was out in the open, I looked around for Jayden. Fear for my friend was pushing down all other emotions.

  “He’s fine,” Ryder said
, directing my gaze to where Jayden was holding his right arm. Blood seeped out from under his fingers and I could see a long, shallow gash in his shoulder.

  The pair of black-haired ash were face down on the ground, hands zip-tied behind their backs, two of Ryder’s teammates, dressed in black military fatigues, standing above them, each resting a boot on their backs. Through Jayden’s constant chatter about the delicious core group of enforcers, I knew them by sight now.

  One was Markus. He was Scottish, with thick red hair which he wore man-bun style, and a beard to match. Dude was pretty suave. From the small amounts I’d heard of him, his accent was quite delicious. The other was Oliver, who was Latino and hot as hell. He had that dark and mysterious thing down, and I wasn’t surprised to see my bestie Jayden giving him more than a single glance. The boy might be injured, but he wasn’t dead. If you included Ryder, we were currently surrounded by three members of the “sexy-six” – Jayden’s name for their group.

  Ryder drew my attention – not that I was ever not paying attention to him – when he quickly scanned up and down my body. His expression was clinical, like he was looking for injuries. But his eyes were still all silver.

  My cheeks reddened and I lowered my face a little. Together we crossed to the two ash on the ground, Ryder’s arm and heat plastered firmly to my uninjured side. When we reached the dicks on the ground, the enforcer’s hand tightened and he kept me close as he crouched near their messed-up faces. Someone had beat on them badly.

  His voice was chilling. “Let this be a message to anyone else who wants to disobey the rules. You save the fighting for the culling. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” the ash ground out, barely able to breathe with the other big boys standing on them.

  “Okay, boss, what should we do with them?” Markus asked in that rolling brogue. Noticing my stare, he gave me a wink.

  Ryder readjusted my position, taking more of my weight. How had he known I was starting to falter again?

  He threw Markus a slight grin. “Throw them in the pit for a night. Let’s see how tough they really are.”

  Markus and Oliver both whistled low, before reaching down to hoist the boys up by the underarms. Ryder turned to face me, his chestnut hair flickering with streaks of gold in the sunlight. Behind him, the now silent and broken douchebuckets were being led away to this mysterious “pit.”

  Ryder leaned in closer. “From now on, you’re my problem. Get a lot of blood and rest tonight, then tomorrow report to the training gym first thing in the morning – and also right after lunch, and after dinner. Understood?”

  Problem? I gritted back my retort. He’d quite possibly just saved my life. “Yes, sir, ash, sir.”

  He heaved out a breath, before leaving me in Jayden’s care. “See you in the morning, number forty-six.”

  “Leave your torture stick at home,” I reminded him.

  I looked up to see Jayden smiling at me, relieved to see that his wound was pretty much closed up now. “What?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing.” And we walked back to the front of the Hive.

  That night my dreams were the most vivid I could remember. Again with the red blood rain, with the constant thirst. But there was a new addition: Ryder and Lucas, both half-naked, both trying to teach me to fight. Or teach me something anyways. The half-naked thing was sort of distracting, even in a dream. As the dreams faded away, I awoke to see Jayden on his bed, slowly rotating his shoulder. I sat up and rubbed my eyes a few times, before reaching for my hair-tie and twisting my hair into a top knot.

  “How’s your arm?” I croaked out through my scratchy morning throat.

  Jayden flicked me a small smile. “I’m almost fully healed. Took a fair amount of blood. His knife sliced through something important.”

  I winced at the memory and my hand went instinctively to my head. I could already tell I was a million times healthier today. Which was fantastic. Just in time for someone else to kick the crap out of me.

  “Yesterday made shit real,” I said to my roomie, my nerves shaking my voice. “Like, those ash were prepared to off us just like that. And in two weeks you and I are legit going to go on a legal killing spree.”

  Jayden gave me a half smile. “Yeah, those boys could have stopped the party before it started. Thank God Ryder showed up.”

  Ryder. I had mixed feelings about that man. On one hand, he was clearly lethal as eff, and had saved me more than once in here. On the other hand, he annoyed the heck out of me with his “number forty-six” dismissiveness. Still … I couldn’t suppress the tingling of anticipation in my stomach. If he wanted to see me three times a day, we were going to be training together a lot over the next two weeks. Which was both something I wanted and dreaded.

  Truthfully, I wasn’t harboring the same level of hate toward ash any longer. It’s hard to hate what you are. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to start crushing on them either. I just couldn’t figure out why Ryder drew me in so much. It was almost like … I knew him from a long time ago, which was crazy talk – I would definitely remember meeting someone as hot as Ryder.

  I snapped out of my haze and focused on Jayden. “So, since I never got the welcome packet, tell me … what are the best ways to kill an ash?”

  Ryder had snapped a bullet between red’s eyes and he was gone. So even though we were harder to kill than humans, a bullet definitely worked. Still, I needed to know all the other ways.

  Jayden handed me a bottle of blood and I drank while he talked.

  “We’re hybrids, so we can regenerate like full-fledged vampires, but we are also still living, like humans.” He was slowly drawling this out and I needed the information faster.

  “Hit me with it.” I hurried him on.

  He shook a finger at me. “I hope you aren’t this impatient in the bedroom.” I flipped him off but we both smiled. We had officially reached BAFF status.

  “We heal really quickly, so you need to inflict a lot of damage, masses of blood loss or major organ failure. Blow us up, light us on fire, put a bullet in the brain, rip out the heart, or decapitation.”

  My mouth hung open. “Jesus.”

  He winked. “You asked, sweet cheeks.”

  I shivered. “So the culling?”

  He frowned. “Is a blood bath. No one really survives, ya know?”

  That hit me. What he said was really deep for my normally lighthearted BAFF. You could survive some things in body but not in mind or spirit. I had never forgotten about the night I was attacked, and if those asshole ash hadn’t been scared off, I knew things would have been much worse – death of soul worse.

  I raised my blood bottle to clink with his. “Here’s to hoping they pay for therapy after we get through it.”

  He gave a deep genuine laugh and clinked my bottle before saying: “You should slurp that blood down, girl. Something tells me Ryder doesn’t like tardiness.”

  Shit! He was so right. I downed my bottle and leapt for the shower.

  I entered the training gym slowly, part of me expecting Ryder to jump out of nowhere and start whooping my ass without warning. It was empty. I peered up into the rafters and was pleased to see them empty as well. Now that I had a chance to have a proper look, I noticed rows of weapons lining the walls. At least four large walls’ worth.

  I was surprised to see that there looked to be something from a range of different cultures and martial art disciplines, including but not limited to samurai swords, whips with barbed ends, throwing knives, curved blades, crossbows, throwing axes – Jesus, my stomach rolled.

  “Nervous?” a low voice said from behind me.

  I jumped and grabbed my chest.

  “Fucking A, Ryder!” I needed to get him a bell or something.

  He smiled, showing those goddamn dimples, but then quickly replaced it with his signature clenched-jaw stare. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  I took a shaky breath. “I wasn’t scared,” I lied. “I just don’t like being snuck up on.” That p
art was the truth at least.

  His smile was back. “Right, well, in the culling there will be sneaking, so get used to it.”

  I eyed the weapons again. “Are there rules, or do I get to run over to the wall and grab an axe and try to cut someone’s heads off?”

  He tilted his head slightly, as if trying to gauge whether I was serious or not. “There are a few rules – but not many. The weapons are out of your control. The opponent’s sponsor chooses your weapon, and Lucas will choose your opponent’s weapon.”

  Great. I hadn’t had weapon training in my defense class. And there were no guns up there.

  “Let’s start,” he said, crossing over to the thickest of blue mats. I followed, taking note of the casual clothing Ryder was wearing. I didn’t often see him out of black camo enforcer gear. He had on loose judo pants and a tight-back muscle shirt. He pulled a gun out from behind his back waist belt and laid it on a bench. The flash of that weapon reminded me of how he had saved my life, and Jayden’s.

  “Hey, about yesterday … thanks.”

  Suddenly his eyes were locked on mine. “It’s my job,” he said.

  I sighed. Okay.

  “Get into your fighting stance.” His voice was clipped now. He was in training mode.

  I did, holding my fists in front of my face, right foot planted in front of me.

  “Are you a southpaw?” He gazed at my stance, eyes roaming over me.

  “Yes, I’m left handed.”

  He shook his head and then grabbed my hips and twisted me a little. I tried to stand firm, but he was strong. He clicked his tongue between his teeth. “You’re weak.”

  “Screw you,” I said, glaring at him.

  “But you have some spunk, so I’m going to work with that. This scrappy fighting style of yours will only last as long as it takes for one of the ash to take you down to the ground.”

  “Guess you’d better have a magic wand then.”