Okay, not exactly thedetailed answer I was looking for, but it sounded like the sponsor thing wasset. I wondered how it was decided. Did they just draw names out of a hat, orhad this Lucas specifically requested me?
“Well … thanks.” What thehell else was I supposed to say? He wasn’t breathing or moving much and it wasstarting to freak me out.
“Well, I just wanted tointroduce myself. Enjoy your run. Stay in shape, it will help with thetraining.” Then he left, white coat trailing behind him. It was sort of abrupt,his departure, but I was okay with that.
After this weirdness Ididn’t feel much like running, unless it was back to my mom’s and away from theHive. I took one last glance at the perfection that was Ryder and left to goback to my room. After showering and changing into a new jumpsuit – not a lotof options in here – I came out to find Jayden suited up and sitting on the bedlacing his sneakers.
“It’s training time. Youshould be paired with a trainer by now, right?” My roommate was nice. He wastrying to help me through this, even knowing we might have to fight each other.The thought of having to kill him to survive made me sick.
“Right,” I lied. Lucashadn’t mentioned a trainer.
Suddenly Jayden inhaledand his eyes did that weird little pulse thing. I froze. That freaky shitneeded to stop.
Jayden swallowed. “Can Itell you something?” He was practically salivating.
Fear knotted my belly. Icould only nod, my high ponytail bobbing up and down.
He paused. “There’ssomething about you. Your blood, your smell, it’s … irresistible.”
What the…? “That’s notnormal?” I squeaked.
His eyes pulsed again andhe shook his head. “No. Ashes don’t feed on other ashes, even ones like me thatlike boys.”
I laughed. “Well, maybeit’s because I’m the first female. The boys want myspecialblood.” Iwinked.
He swallowed hard. “No,it’s more than that. I just thought you should know. Watch your back. Anyonewith less self-discipline is going to have a hard time restraining themselves.”He stood suddenly and crossed the room to the fridge, whipping out a bottle ofblood and chugging it in one fast go.
Well, shit. Couldn’t agirl catch a break?
I followed Jayden through the barrage ofhalls and thoroughfares. The Hive was a lot like the way I pictured an anthill,tunnels zigzagging through the building and down into the ground. There werethese huge industrial sized elevators at the end of each corridor which zoomedup and down the levels.
Training was on sublevel eight,which meant we were going underground.
There were five other ashin the elevator with us; they varied in size and shape. We all looked to be inour early twenties, the prime time for the ash gene to be triggered and thechange to occur. No one spoke. Jayden nudged my arm in a comforting manner, buteven he was quiet for once. When we were on the right level, it was a simplematter of traversing along the hall to reach the large double doors at the end.
My heart was pretty muchlodged in my throat as I tried to imagine what the hell this training was goingto entail. The males around me looked like they were being marched to theexecutioner or something.
I had so many unansweredquestions. I had never much been interested in the Hive or any of itsinhabitants, even before the attack. There were classes in school on the virusand the resulting vampires. It had been a long time since the very first case,and the human race was used to the bloodsuckers now; they were an integratedpart of our history. But I purposely avoided those high school and collegesubjects. What did I care about the social structure of the Hive? Or thehierarchy of a race I was determined to avoid.
Fate, however, seemed tohave a different plan for me, and now it was time to start informationgathering. “Tell me about this Quorum,” I said to Jayden, startling him out ofwhatever eye-screw he was trying to do with a vampire who’d crossed paths withus.Flirt.
He turned those eyes withtheir sinfully long lashes on to me. “Girl, you are so fucked, and not in thefun way. You don’t know about the Quorum?”
I didn’t say anything,just kept my eyes locked on him and let my annoyance seep out. He held up bothhands. “Got it, you’re a badass. Okay, so the Quorum is the council of vampireswhich lead the Hive and each Hive has their own Quorum. They are the strongestmembers of the ten houses.”
I did remember hearingabout this. It had been a crazy time when the first strains of the virusemerged. Humans were falling ill, some dying and others becoming vampires. Tosave the population, the world leaders banded together, and went on a massculling. They wiped out the infected animals and humans, but a small group ofvampires managed to escape and hide away. They became the ten Originals. Thefounding lineage behind each clan, discretely turning humans and fatheringash.
“Are they still alive,the Originals?” I asked.
Jayden shook his head.“None of the Originals survived the first war with humans, but their lines liveon. Each of the vampires, and ash, fall under one of the ten groups. A DNA testcan tell which group you’re in, but they don’t waste money on that until yousurvive the culling. Each group has an elder vampire which leads, maintainsorder, and disciplines. These ten form the Quorum. Plus the token ash.”
“Token ash?” I wassurprised about this.
Jayden’s shit-eating grinincreased. “Are you telling me that the most delectable, scrumptious piece ofash you’ll ever lay your eyes on sat by your bedside for two days while youwere all blood-crazed, and you didn’t even go so far as to find out a singlething about him?”
I let out a breath. Hehad to be talking about Ryder. “Ryder is the ash representative on the Quorum?”
“Technically he is. Ryderheads up the enforcers, and he is the scariest, sexiest, piece of—”
