“But thevamps allow a small number of ash to integrate into the Hive each year. In twoweeks there will be a culling … a series of fights to the death, all of whichtakes place over seven days. First we fight individually, and then when theinitial weak are weeded out, it moves on to team fights. All of the new ashmust fight, and if you survive, you get to become a member of the Hive. Yay.”He ended the last part with fake bravado.
I releasedthe breath I had been holding. Well, I’ll be damned, the rumors were true.
Jayden wenton: “There’re lots of rules and traditions that go along with it. There’responsors that pay for training, and a ranking system that says whether or notyou fight first or last, and who you’ll team with if you make it that far. Allof which can be the difference between life and death. You might be happy toknow that rumor has it you caught the eye of Lucas. He’s on the Quorum. Ihaven’t figured out yet if…”
He trailedoff and I was wondering more about who the hell this Lucas was. How many freakin’vamps had I encountered in my bloodthirsty crazed days here?
My stomachgrowled. Odd. I didn’t feel thirsty, it was actual hunger that panged me. Thisfelt much more like my old days of being a food whore.
Jayden’ssmile quirked even higher. “Believe it or not, we still need to eat one humanfood meal a day, especially when healing.” He jumped up. “How you doing withthis? Wanna curl up and die or are you ready to give this a try?” Those asheyes sparkled at me. “The way I see it, you have two options right now: try tocommit suicide, or come grab some food with me.”There was barelyany silver in the black of his eyes. “I know whichoption I’dprefer. I’m not much for blood on my clothes, and I wouldhate to clean up your dead ass.”
I laughed, anactual real laugh. If I did need to be in this shithole and fight for my life,I mind as well keep my spirits up.
“Food,” Isaid, and stood.“I’m not one for giving up. I’m the lifeand lemons sort. As long as there is tequila too.”
“Amen to that, sister.”
I hadn’t been kidding, Iwas not one to give up. I would push all the information down to my deep darkplace and pull it up later when needed.
After taking a quickshower and slipping into a new jumpsuit – I had like ten #46 suits in my sideof the box cupboard – we left our room and went down a long hallway. Imemorized the route as we pushed through two double doors and into a hugecafeteria. As we stepped inside, the noise hit me first, followed closely bythe multitude of scents. My senses were kicking into overdrive, and it actuallytook me several long moments to deal with the overwhelming stimulation to mybody, filtering it all out, compartmentalizing so I didn’t start freaking out.
There must have been overa thousand ashes in there. And at some point after my entrance, the noisestarted filtering away, until every single one of them had stopped what theywere doing and was staring at me.
Holy cracking ash babies.Iwas frozen in the doorway. Unable to move, but at least finally not drowning inthe sea of sensations.
Jayden broke the tensionby giving me a push forward. “Hurry, or all the good food will be gone.” Histone was all casual and relaxed, despite the fact there were still thousands ofeyes locked on us. Jayden was one cool gay dude.
I took a tentative stepinto the room. My olfactory sense was smashing me with information, like itknew somehow how to catalogue the smells. I knew one thing for sure: they wereall ashes. I scanned the crowd, trying not to linger too long on any one group.There were scary faces in here. But all beautiful. It’s like any human oroffspring affected by the vampire virus were smoothed out or something. Allflaws just kind of sculpted away. Don’t get me wrong, each still had completelyindividual features, all unique, but the flaws were non-existent.
I took a tentative stepafter Jayden, and it was then my eyes locked onto a familiar dark head. Ryder.He was sitting on the left side of the large cafeteria-style room with a groupof big, badass-looking ashes. I noted that his table seemed a little different fromthe others. They were sat further apart than the rest of the tables; there weresix of them, silently watching me; they all wore black clothing, army style,and all had identical cold and menacing expressions. They were the sort of ashesI would never want to find myself in a dark alley with. Ryder was no exception,except … there was just something else a little more about him. Or maybe I wasactually developing some sort of weird Stockholm syndrome since he had saved myass, twice.
Deciding there was noplace in this room to act like a weak ash, especially since the newest cullingparticipants would be looking for kinks in my armor, I just jutted my chinhigh, showing no fear. I thought I saw a flash of something in Ryder’s eyes,but all he did was give me the slightest of nods. I tore my eyes away andcontinued to follow Jayden into the room. Then, just like that, everyone wentback to what they were doing.
The food was set up in alow row of serving trays. Jayden hurried along first, and I followed slower,grabbing a few bits before settling on a black bean burrito. Hurrying to catchup with my roommate, I noticed his plate and I arched an eyebrow at him.
“Christ, are you feedingthe entire Hive?”
His plate was piled highwith hummus, chocolate cake, nachos, bacon – everything was just on top of theother and smashed together in some disgusting concoction of flavors.
Jayden laughed, his blackeyes twinkling. “I like you.” He hip bumped me.
We found our way to asection in the back that was marked off behind a velvet rope.
“What’s with the specialseating?” I asked, sitting down.
Jayden glanced back atthe main part of the room. A serious look came over his face. “No one wants tobecome friends with us until they know who is going to survive.”
Right. Awesome. I suddenlywasn’t hungry. Depression settled over me like a thick blanket.
“You don’t have anythingto worry about,” he said. “The shit you pulled with Ryder, you’re probably atop pick.”
Ryder … was he talkingabout me breaking his ankle? How was that special? All new ash were strong,weren’t they?
“Top pick?” I musedaloud.
He popped a piece ofbacon in his mouth and moaned. I gave him an odd look.
“Like I said in the room,the night before the culling starts we get ranked. The top picks fight less. Theyget to sit out a lot, and some of them only fight once or twice before the teamevent. The vamps like the weak to get killed off first.”
