I sat down in the redleather padded chair and hoped that my resting bitch face was on. These peoplewere really starting to annoy me. No more words were spoken at thescientistpinned my arm down and jabbed it with a needle. I had forgotten the affect my bloodhad on them until the aroma hit the air and they all stiffened.
“Why do you think herblood is so tempting?” one of them asked as his fangs extended onto his lowerlip.
The scientist holdingthe tube of my blood shook his head as if to clear his own lusting thoughts. “Idon’t know, but I’m about to find out.”
“Maybe because she is thefirst female ash,” another Quorum member offered.
The ugly one shook hishead, that crooked nose looking even more bent in the fluorescent lighting downhere. “No, I think there is more to it. When will the results be ready?”
The scientist placed thetube into a glass cylinder compartment inside a machine.
“About eight hours.”
Ugly turned his dark,silver eyes on me. “You may go. Don’t leave your apartment today. All right?”
House arrest. Awesome.
I nodded. Would it killthem to get cable in the Hive? At least then I could at least spend the hoursuntil my doom with some good TV viewing. I’d choose those badass brothers fromSupernatural.The door opened and an ash was there to collect me.
What? No Quorum escortback to my room?
As I followed the ashwordlessly down the hall, the severity of the situation began to press down onme. What if it didn’t work? What would happen when my blood showed that myfather was an Original? Would they kill me? I needed to talk to Ryder, he wouldknow what to expect from this.
The ash dumped me at mydoor and left without a word. I’ll bet that he thought the Quorum warning wasmore than enough to keep me from wandering during the next eight hours. Littledid he know, I was most probably going to be running for my life, and a littlerule breaking would be the least of my worries.
I crashed into myapartment, closing the door tightly behind me. I scented that Jayden was here,but Ryder’s spiciness was missing.
Jayden strode out of hisbedroom, bottle of blood in hand. “Girl! What the actual fuck is going on? Theyhad your shit searched while you were gone. You need to tell me everything andyou need to do it now.”
He drained his bottlebefore throwing it in the trash and basically kicking my ass across to ourcouch. I interrupted his next little hissy fit.
“Where’s Ryder? I’mpretty sure I’m in a crap-ton of trouble and I have no idea what the hell I’msupposed to do now.”
I was not sitting aroundwaiting for them to kill me. No freakin’ way. Still, there weren’t many optionsfor me. I might never have wanted to be an ash and live in the Hive, but therewas no life left for me in the human world. They feared my kind, and I would behunted by the government. If these tests went badly, I was going to end up withnowhere to escape.
“He did that growly,sexy-as-sin thing, then took off just after you were escorted out by theNightof the Living Deadcrew. He hasn’t come back yet.”
I could tell by the wayJayden had me pinned with his dark eyes, and the hand on my shoulder, that hewas not letting me leave until I told him everything. I just had to hope thisknowledge wouldn’t come back to bite him.
“They did some tests whenI first turned, trying to figure out how the hell there was a female ash.Apparently they had some odd results. They believe my father was an Original.”
I had just thrown it outthere, and Jayden was surprisingly calm about it. So either he didn’t know thestories or he wasn’t worried. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal. His perfectly shapedbrows drew together as he seemed to contemplate my words further. “Closely descendedfrom an Original is not a huge deal, but sired directly is … I thought all theOriginals were dead.”
He was starting tounderstand now, understand the trouble I was in.
“What else was wrong withyour blood, Charlie?”
I swallowed loudly,working hard to try and clear the lump in my throat so I could talk. “I wasn’tshowing the standard blood work of an ash, and yet it wasn’t vampire bloodeither. The lab technician was confused, said she was going to run more tests,but I haven’t heard from her or Lucas since then.”
Lucas or Ryder, I neededone of those big bastards. Someone needed to tell me what level of freak-the-fuck-outI needed to be having.
Jayden rubbed a hand overhis eyes, looking confused. “So if you’re not an ash or vamp, what the hell areyou?”
I pulled myself from hisgrip and began to pace the room. “I have no idea. What is there beside ash orvampire? I’m definitely not human.”
Jayden fluttered thosecrazy long lashes. “I wouldn’t worry about that right now. Let’s deal withproblem number one – you being a direct descendant of an Original. The Originalswere all murdered for fear of them being too powerful.”
I stopped and looked upat him. “So … if they find out?”
