He folded over and I tookthe chance to tackle him to the ground, straddling him, his hands pinned undermy legs as he clutched his bleeding stomach. I couldn’t meet his eyes as Ibrought the dagger up and slid it straight under his chin and into his neck.Ryder had shown me many times the best ways to kill and debilitate quickly, informationthat had been very useful during the culling, but which no twenty-one-year-oldshould ever have to know.
I had no choice. I toldmyself that over and over. I had no mother-effing choice. But I still hatedmyself for it.
He started bleeding out, andI clenched my thighs to keep him from lifting his hands and stanching any ofthe blood. It was only that he was weak and injured already that I’d even had achance. If Lucas hadn’t used his money and influence to ensure I was one of thelast fighters … fuck this! This was so wrong. Tears lined my eyes as the lastof my innocence died. I wasn’t Charlie anymore, that girl who liked to check outboys at Starbucks and get mani-pedis with Tessa…
It was inevitable ofcourse. I had to harden all of my soft edges if I was going to survive my newlife as a tasty Nutella unicorn, but it still pissed me off.
The ash beneath me ceasedto breathe, and stopped moving, and I stood up to the roaring crowd as thebuzzer sounded. I threw my dagger on the ground and met the eyes of my newsociety. Then I raised both hands and gave them all the middle finger, turningin a slow circle to make sure they all saw. Fuck you crazy assholes and yoursadistic game. My gesture was met with mostly glares and a few sparse chuckles.Yeah, glare on, freaks, I didn’t give a shit.
I turned to Jayden,relieved to see he had wound a shirt around his neck and was sitting up.Together we left the arena, never looking back. Ryder came out of a sideentrance and approached me with a solemn face.
“You did it.”
I could only nod. I hadjust fought for the right to live in a society that I wanted nothing to dowith. Yay. Life was great.
Chapter 7
It had been a week since the culling andlife in the Hive had completely changed. We were given ID badges with ouractual names. Jayden and I received a nice two-bedroom apartment that happenedto be down the hall from Ryder and the enforcers. Level thirty-three. We got towear normal clothes and were assigned shitty jobs. Jayden worked the front deskat the feeding center and I helped in the communications room. I got todispatch Ryder and his enforcer team to different situations that got calledin. It was hella boring and I would much rather be going to the actual calls andenforcing, but I guess it was fine for now. The nightmares from the culling werealso starting to ease. The fact that I’d ended lives and had to fight to thedeath still weighed heavily on me, but last night I’d actually slept five hoursin a row. First time since that day.
I would never forget whatthe vampires had forced me to do, but for now I was going to bide my time. Icouldn’t change anything yet, but one day I wanted to give it my best shot toend the culling. I was relieved to know that even as a full-fledged member ofthe Hive, vampires were still not around much. I wasn’t sure what those suckersdid in their spare time – stuck to their own levels of the compound probably –but either way I was much more comfortable with ash now. Which was good, sincethat’s all I ever saw.
Thank God for emails frommy mom and Tessa, some much needed female interactions. They’d been more thanrelieved to learn I had survived the culling, and both were happy to know thatI was applying for permission to go back to my college classes. As an ash ofcourse. I would have to sit in a special section and not with Tessa, but itwould be nice to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Of course, I wasn’t allowedback for a year. That was how long new ash were monitored. Which left me boredand edgy in the Hive. Cell phones didn’t work in lower levels of the Hive, sofor daily communications Tessa and I had to email each other. I smiled as I sawan email pop up.
‘Clubbin’, read thetitle.
Hey bitch,
I miss your blooddrinking ass and now that you’re not on ash probation, I thought we could meetup at Club Shade. Blake invited me, I will stay out after curfew. Please come,I miss your ability to down an entire bottle of tequila. Don’t dress like aboy, show the goods.
P.S invite Ryder, I gottasee this guy in person.
Love,
Tessa
My smile grew larger. I glancedover my shoulder. The communications room was pretty empty right now. Just Markus,the Scottish enforcer, and my current communications job trainer.
“Hey, Markus, what’s theprotocol for new ash going out during curfew hours?”
He gave me a look thatsaid I might not like the answer. “For the first year, all requests go throughRyder.”
Ugh. This monitored for ayear thing was going to get old real fast. I drummed my nails on the table topand then stood to go find the elusive ash. He had just gotten back from a callwhere one of the eleven new ash that survived the culling had tried to runaway. He hadn’t made it far, of course. Ryder was very good at his job.
I knocked on the enforcerlocker room door.
“Come in,” Ryder said.
I opened the door and hadto keep my jaw from dropping as Ryder was standing before me wearing only awhite towel. His skin still had droplets of water beading and rolling down.Good God, this man was trying to kill me.
“What’s up?” he said ashe pulled on a black t-shirt. I followed the movement as it rolled over his tandelicious body.
In the short time sincewe’d stopped training together, I had almost forgotten how perfect Ryder was.Shit, okay, I hadn’t exactly forgotten, more like I made myself to think of himas only my friend and an enforcer. No one wanted to lust after someone who wasnot interested, no matter how many blazing looks he threw my way. I needed tomeet up with Tessa … or meet a nice ash ready to settle down. Ugh, no, not anash. A human maybe … screw the rules. It had definitely been way too long sinceI had had a boyfriend.
I stared at hismesmerizing eyes, the silver so prominent tonight. I wondered what emotion hewas feeling strongly. “Just wanted to see if I could meet Tessa – my bestfriend who is human – at a night club tonight. During ash curfew hours ofcourse.”
He took a moment beforeanswering. “I don’t know … you’re new, and the Quorum brought a shit storm ofquestions down on Lucas after your levitation incident at the culling.”
Apparently it was rarefor a new ash to tap into their houses special skill like that. Thankfully, thequestioning had been brief, but the Quorum were now “keeping an eye on me”.
