The doctors were fast –benefits of the vampire virus. After swabbing my cheek and taking some hair,they pricked my finger. The moment my red blood beaded at the tip, the blondvampire inhaled deeply and hissed, her fangs extending.
An unusual scent slammedinto me, and I realized it was my blood. What the hell was up with its potency?Shit, I almost wanted to bite myself. Lucas frowned and grabbed the woman’s arm.I scanned each one of them as their eyes pulsed silver, green, silver, green.
I quickly wiped mybleeding finger on the test strip and placed it in my mouth. An odd tastewashed across my tongue, but my finger healed before I could really sense whyit was strange. Lucas led the female out of the room, and returned alone. Hewas staring at me like I was a complicated chess game. What Jayden had saidabout the allure of my blood was true, even for vamps.
Mental note: Don’t. Bleed.Ever.
The male vampire withbraids cleared his throat and bagged the specimen. “We will send across theresults. Lucas, you’ll be able to plan your culling schedule and make sure she’straining in her specialty areas.”
Since my finger hadalready healed and the unique scent of my blood was gone, the vampire’s eyes wereback to normal.
“I don’t have anyspecialties. You don’t need a DNA test to know that. Just watch me get my asshanded to me every day in training.”
Lucas smiled in one ofthose full, breathtaking, rows of pearly whites. My breathing stuttered alittle. He was potent when he wanted to be. “If we know who your sire is, thenwe know what your specialty is. Each of the ten houses has a specialty. Morespecifically, each vampire Original had a specialty which they passed on indiluted versions to their descendants. There is much we can discover from yourancestry.”
Whoa. Interesting. Thedoctor left the room then, samples tucked into a lab bag. Lucas reached out andI took his hand, but still got to my feet without help. A part of me justwanted to hold his hand and see if he gave me the same tingles that Ryder couldinduce with just one of his famous stoic looks.
It was nice, no denyingit, but not exactly the same. Staring into his silver eyes, I suddenly feltvery brave. “Tell me what happened to the Originals,” I blurted out.
He sort of froze, hishuman façade, which vampires tried to maintain, disappearing altogether as somesort of feral predator rose in his eyes.
“Even though they escapedthe early cullings, they were eventually wiped out by humans,” he said. “Theblood of an Original is where the virus is strongest. It has been diluted downthrough the years, and now all that remains are the ten houses. We are verydistant descendants.”
His tone was clipped, asif he were reciting the standard brochure on the Originals or something.
“I thought after thoseinitial years things got better between vampires and humans, so why were theywiped out?” I had to ask.
Lucas pulled his handfrom mine and started to walk toward the door. I didn’t think he was going toanswer. He pressed down on the handle and clicked open the door.
But then he swiveled hishead back around and gave me a pointed stare. “For a long time there was a lotof misinformation and fear. Even though the original vectors, the bats, weregone, the humans still feared getting the virus from a cough, a touch,anything. On top of that, newly changed vampires didn’t appreciate being weakerthan the Originals. We believe a group of vampires coordinated an attack with anextremist group of humans. They came in the middle of the night and wiped outthe entire Original lines.
My mouth fell open. Okay,yeah, I didn’t exactly love the bloodsuckers, but killing off the bunch of themin the night was akin to genocide. They had all been humans before the virus,and I knew that they still had many human traits even now.
“After this loss ofleadership the Quorum was formed, and some semblance of order has remained eversince. Ryder is the closest ash or vampire in the Hive with a direct link to anOriginal.”
Whoa. My traininginstructor had just got that much more interesting.
“Again!” Ryder yelled as I pounded on theboxing mannequin.
I groaned. I was sweatingbullets, my pinky was broken, and I was bored out of my mind. It had been threedays of this shit and I was considering killing myself so I didn’t have tocontinue this insane regimen. Of course, soon I wouldn’t have to worry too muchabout killing myself. Someone else was sure to do it in the culling.
“I can’t,” I confessed. “It’smaddening. I need a change.” My muscles ached from the weightlifting session I’dhad before training, but I couldn’t deny the definition forming in my arms andlegs. Ash built muscle easily, and I was halfway home to a six-pack.
Ryder seemed to considermy words. He walked over and grabbed the mannequin, wheeling him to the farwall.
“Thank you, sweet babyJesus!” I practically shouted. Finally this guy was listening to me.
Ryder planted himself oppositeme, arms in front of his face. “Again.”
I stared into hisgorgeous face and cracked a smile. “You want me to kick your ass?” Oh man I hadbeen dreaming of this day. This good-looking, smug bastard had electrocuted me– I was totes never letting that go – had kicked my legs out from under me, andmade me work my ass off all week. He deserved some payback.
He tilted his head to theside in that observe-me-like-a-lab-rat way of his. “You’re a little too happyabout trying to hurt me.”
I rolled my eyes. Hewaved me closer. “You think you’ve done the five steps enough? Let’s see howyou do with the real thing. I’m going to do basic blocks, but I will let you hitme. It’s important you get used to the feel and sound of skin hitting skin, andbones crunching under impact.”
My stomach rolled. Jesusthis guy was a mercenary.
All of a sudden I didn’twant to hit him, or break any bones in that gorgeous face. If I didn’t havesomething pretty to look at every day, the Hive would be a real buzzkill. Sure,there were lots of pretty males here, but Ryder … well, he was Ryder.
