I glanced at my watch andjumped to my feet. “I have a stats class, so I’ll meet you after and you cantalk my ear off about all of the ash you hope to see at the club tonight.”
Tessa also stood, thengave me a wink. “You know me too well.”
I really did. She was anopen book, but absolutely solid as a best friend.
I jogged off in theopposite direction, dreading the thought of tonight, but knowing that Tessadefinitely needed me to keep her level of stupid to a minimum. One thing wasfor sure: if there were ash at the club, and one of them grabbed my arm again,I was ripping it off. That was for damn sure.
Chapter 2
Tessa and I hopped on the MAX and took thetrain downtown. She put a hand on her hip and gave me a sultry look. “How do Ilook?”
She was wearing a shortblack fuck-me dress and bright red lipstick.
“Like you want to becomea blood whore,” I said with a shake of my head. She’d made me leave my hair downtonight. It curled across my shoulders and down my back in waves.
She laughed. “Good.”
I gave her a WTF look asshe eyed my skintight jeans, black ass-kicking boots and tight red tank. I wasshowing all the goods, because Tessa wouldn’t have let me leave the houseotherwise. She was always pissed I didn’t let her dress me like her ownpersonal doll.
She gave an exaggeratedsigh. “I have long given up on trying to give you better fashion sense.”
I flipped her off, whichhad her throwing up her hands. “Seriously, we’re supposed to be looking to getlaid, not kicking someone’s ass.”
Igrinned. My outfit was perfect. You never knew when some ass-kicking would berequired. Especially on the streets of Portland. That’s what all my trainingwas about now. And speaking of … my eyes fell onto the large, dramaticallylettered, laminated poster that permanently marred the train walls.
Are you an Ash?
*Increased stamina
*Lack of appetite
*Anger outbursts
*Insatiable thirst
*Beauty &Strength
*Male
Call the hotlineif these symptoms come on suddenly!
Itwent on to list the risks and dangers an ash posed to society, and urged themto call for free testing. I shook my head. What bullshit. One fine day you werewalking along thinking life was awesome and you were a human and not abloodsucking creep, and then bam, your body started to change and there was noway to stop the slow transition to an ash. All because twenty something yearsbefore, your mom couldn’t keep it in her pants and gave it up to some lusty vampire.It was illegal of course to procreate with vamps, but sometimes rules arebroken. Repeatedly.
“Whydo you think all ash are male?” I asked Tessa. She was obsessed enough withthem, she should know.
Acheeky grin quirked up the corner of her lips. “Who cares? I don’t question agood thing. Besides, that means less competition for us.”
Okay,apparently she was obsessedandstupidly uneducated about ash. Greatcombo there. The vampires and ash were unnaturally beautiful, the exact sort ofweapon which came in handy for the luring of stupid, horny women. There werevampire females of course – for the luring of stupid, horny men – but no femaleash. For some reason the union of male vampire and female human only everresulted in male offspring. Male offspring who appeared to be completely humanuntil their early twenties. The virus slept dormant inside their brain until thetime their frontal lobe finished development. Then they slowly began to change,and soon figured out that their mama had had some fun with the undead. Some ashknew before their transformation, others were kept in the dark until the lastmoment.
Familiarlandmarks zoomed past; we were almost at our stop. Tessa and I moved closer tothe door and waited for the train to come to a halt. There were plenty ofstudents from PSU with the same plan as us tonight, so when the doors opened wejust flowed along with the crowd.
Itwas after 11pm by the time we walked the three blocks. Music washed across thestreets, heavy with a strong bass.
“Holyshit, looks like Stag is pumping tonight,” Tessa said, practically shrieking myear off as she dragged me through.
Ifollowed, comforting myself with the fact that at least no ash should be herenow. Vampires and ash were not allowed out in public places unless by specialpermission, such as college classes. Vampires couldn’t handle the sun, so thehumans were given a curfew of 1am. After that, the night in Portland, and manyother major American cities, was ruled by the Hive, and it wasn’t in a human’sbest interest to be caught out after curfew. Unless you were a blood whore. Ofcourse, Tessa never cared for these rules. I’d had to drag her home more thanonce after lock-out.
Thebouncers checked us off the list and then we were inside. Lights strobed acrossthe industrial styled club, bouncing off polished cement floors, steel, andbronze décor.
