Ifelt her cool hands on my face, and I groaned as pain shot through me. I feltlike I was burning up. I was sick. Sicker than I’d ever remembered being. Thiswas so not a simple hangover.
“Ineed you to listen to me, Charlene Anne Bennett. I love you more than anythingin this world, and it doesn’t matter what anyone says to you in the next few days,that will never change.Do you understand me?” Her voice was strong and didn’twaver.
Holyshit, she was scaring me.
Feargave me the boost of adrenalin I needed to pry my lids fully open, and mymother’s worried face came into view. She wasn’t the only one either. Standingbehind her, one on either side, were two ash. Both of them had those eerieblack eyes with the silver rings locked on me. I realized then I wasn’t in mydorm. I was lying on my mother’s kitchen floor.Whywas I in my mother’s house? Actually, more importantly, why were ash in mymother’s house?
“Mom…”
Ineeded to get her out of here. Ash were dangerous, especially in a privateresidence with no one around to help us.
“I’mso sorry, Charlie. I tried to tell you so many times. But … I didn’t think itcould ever happen. You were a girl, so you had to be John’s.”
Istruggled to get up, and with assistance from my mom I managed to get into asitting position.From this angle, I wassuddenly mesmerized by the pulsing vein in the side of her neck. I opened andclosed my eyes a few times, but still, when I looked again, the vein wasdefinitely pulsing with blood.
Oneof the ash picked up his phone, and pressing a button lifted it to his ear. Hemuttered three words:
“Weneed Ryder.”
Andjust like that I passed out again.
This timewhen I awoke my mom wasn’t there, and unlike the fuzziness from before, I hadall of my memories and they were crystal clear.Holy shit.There hadbeen ash in my mom’s house. My feet had healed in seconds. The bloody dream.The vein in my mom’s neck. What the actual hell was wrong with me? Was my drinkspiked last night with something … some sort of hallucinogen? A human growthhormone that made my body go nuts? There had to be a medical explanation.
I looked down. I was clothed in a starched, white hospital gown.Mom must have brought me here after I spazzed out on her and lost consciousnesstwice. But a glance around only raised my confusion. This didn’t look like anyroom I’d ever seen at Legacy Hospital. For one thing, it was way too big andteched out, and it had a huge glass window, like an observation station, dominatingthe entire right wall. A shadow darted across the window and I jerked my head alittle, trying to see what was there. Was it a doctor creeping around? Or wasthere some awesome stalker in my life?
A throat cleared behind me. Standing three feet from my hospitalbed was him, the gorgeous, deadly-looking ash from the club last night. Ryder.Had he been standing there the entire time?What the hell was in my drinkslast night?
My focus locked on him again and the air almost sizzled betweenus. That strange pull was still there, a connection I sure as shit did not wantwith an ash. Speaking of … what the fuck was he doing in my hospital room?
There was very little expression on his face; his jaw wasclenched. I swallowed hard, my tongue swollen. I was so goddamn thirsty it feltlike my head was going to explode. I lifted my arm to adjust my position andfound that I was chained to the bed.
Oh hell no. It was becoming startlingly clear that my initialinstinct had been correct. This wasn’t a freakin’ hospital.
Ryder hadn’t moved. His dark eyes seemed to be locked on mine. Finally,he shook his head. “It can’t be.” His words were low and muttered, not reallyintended for my ears.
I pulled against the chains. “Where the hell am I? What have youdone with my mom? You need to let me go right now. This is all kinds of jackedup and against the law.”
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, making the words garbled.Ryder moved then, in that preternatural way which suggested speed far greaterthan a human. He grabbed a small mirror off a side table and approached meslowly.
“Charlie, I need you to stay calm. Your mom phoned the hotlinenumber when you passed out. She saw your eyes, and knew that … well, it’sdamned impossible … but we think you’re an ash.”
My mouth dropped open. What did he just say? Before I couldverbally react, he was holding the mirror out and shoving it in front of myface.
I froze as my reflection shimmered back at me.
“No!”
I howled. It was low and animalistic. My eyes…
Gone was the dark brown so like my mother’s. In its place was ablack iris with a ring around it. The ring was a silvery green, dancing like itcontained bolts of lightning. I wanted to tear my gaze from those alien eyes.But I couldn’t stop looking.
Holy fuck! I had ash eyes.
Evenin my distressed state, I noticed that something about my eyes seemeda little different from the male ash eyes I had seen. Butthere was no mistaking the fact that I had the very distinct eyes of a humanvampire hybrid. My mother’s words floated back to me. She had been trying totell me something, to prepare me for this moment. My chest heaved as I foughtback the panic that was coming. Ryder held the mirror in place, as if he wastrying to force me to stare longer, to acknowledge all of the things I hadconveniently ignored over the last few months. It wasn’t just the eyes. Therewas no denying how flawless my skin was; it had a light glow, and my hair shonelike in a Pantene commercial. Not to mention I could run like an Olympicathlete and was thirsty for something no liquid I drank could quench. Butstill, even with all of that, the eyes were the worst.
I was a freak. How had this happened?
AsRyder lowered the mirror, the dry burning need in my throat and mouth roared tolife. Everything was starting to make sense now. If I was an ash, I needed…
