My heart pinched at herwords, her so very tempting words. But I knew there was no way. I needed bloodsix times a day. Not to mention my crazy eyes. Humans would flip the hell outand my mom would die of blood loss. “Mom, that’s sweet, but I don’t think wewould last very long on the run.”
I had already scoped theplump throbbing vein in her neck more than once. My mom sighed. “Well, thisLucas person seems to care about you. He sought me out and snuck me in here tosee you.” She raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you could use yourfemale giftsto make sure he takes care of you.”
Oh my God. She did notjust said that. “Female gifts? Are you whoring me out?”
She laughed, and justlike that some of the heavy emotional stuff lifted and we were back to makingjokes. “I’m saying he’s in a place of power and you’re a good looking younglady.”
I plugged my ears. “La lala. Oh my God, Mom.”
She shrugged. “That’s allI got. Those were the only two plans I had.” Her voice shook.
I sat up straighter andgrasped her hands in a strong grip. “Well, I have a plan.”
She looked hopeful.
“I’m going to get somebig, buff, scary looking ash to teach me how to be a badass, murdering fighter,and I’m going to survive the culling with my own two hands.”
My mom smiled weakly asif she didn’t believe that was possible. Great. Team Charlie, party of one. Aknock at the door jarred us from the moment. The stone barrier swung open. Redwas back. Her graceful catlike poise had me instinctively leaning in front ofmy mother in a protective gesture. Home-girl looked ready to pounce at anymoment.
“Number forty-six, yourtime is up. The human must leave the Hive now. No more visitors until after theculling, when you have earned the right, like everyone else.” She practicallyspat out the last words.
My mother and I shared alook.Bitch. And the next person to call me number forty-six was gettinga fat lip.
I hugged my mom and tookone last sniff of her lilac and spearmint scent. If I closed my eyes I couldalmost pretend for a moment I was back home. Then, with my heart heavy and myeyes aching, I stood and followed Red. I turned back to meet my mom’s eyes onemore time, as another vampire appeared out of nowhere to escort her away.
I struggled to get myemotions under control the entire time I followed Red. Vamp-bitch dropped meback off at the double doors on level eight, the training room. The only soundin the space was her high heels clicking off back down the hallway. I took amoment to gather myself, to focus.
Training. Right. I wasgoing to train to fight for my life. Everything about this felt wrong. Onemoment I was an upstanding human citizen and the next I was being booted tobloodsucker-ville to fend for my life. Effed up. Well, maybe I wasn’t exactlyupstanding, but I wasn’t a complete drain on society. Now I felt discarded. Wherethe hell were the police? Couldn’t I call 911 and get bailed out of this? Hah!Yeah right. I was infected, no one wanted me.
“Are you going to standout here all day or do you actually plan on learning something.”
I tried not to jump asRyder’s deep voice broke through my thoughts. Dammit, he’d snuck up on me again.I turned to glare at him, startled to see he was with another ash, tall and palewith short, military-style dark blond hair. God these men were gorgeous. Iwasn’t sure how long my hormones could be stemmed here and have no release. Myfear and distrust used to keep the interest at bay, but I was slowly becomingdesensitized to their freak ways and now only seemed to zero in on theirhotness. Plus, I was starting to see that blaming an entire race for theactions of two assholes, was pretty darn unfair.
When I didn’t answer,Ryder introduced blondie. “This is Zeke, your trainer.”
I scanned Zeke up anddown. He looked buff, like he might be a deadly weapon, but nothing like Ryder.“Hi, I’m number forty-six.” I shook his hand, giving Ryder a bright smile.Laced with venom of course.
The corners of Ryder’slips curled slightly.
Zeke nodded as hereleased my hand. “Do you have any training at all?”
I stood taller. “Yes,women’s self-defense, shooting range, and I’m a runner.”
Zeke huffed as if that wasnothing. “Well then, let’s see what you got.”
He opened the doubledoors and I was assaulted by the smell of leather, blood, and sweat. For thefirst time, the noises from within were audible. The room was soundproofed.There was a lot of grunting going on, especially as most of the ash were beingslammed onto the mats that littered the open gym floor. Looking up, there werehuge exposed rafters and a forty-foot ceiling. Surrounding the fight-zone werea few spectators sitting in bleachers suspended above the gym on some upperfloor viewing area. Great, a crowd.
I followed Zeke to anopen area. Ryder took a spot leaning against the wall to watch.
Zeke planted his bigframe in front of me. “Okay, attack.”
“Like, for real?” Iscratched my arm nervously. Damn, he wasted no time.
“Like, totally for real,”he said in a valley girl voice. Asshole. I put my hands in front of me in aboxer’s stance and heard Ryder and a few of the other trainers chuckle behindme. Bastards, all of them.
I decided to act like theairhead they clearly thought I was, stumbling forward and pretending I wasgoing to clock Zeke in the face. He acted as I expected – his arms lifted toblock my pathetic attempts at a swing. Then, instead of throwing the punch, I whippedmy leg up and kneed him in the groin, connecting solidly. The air whooshed outof him. This was followed by a groan as he curled in on himself.
I forced myself not tosmile, but that was perfect. And would hopefully teach him not to treat me likea Barbie doll. My celebration was short-lived though. He recovered quicker thanI expected and threw himself forward, taking me down to the ground.
