Free Ash by Jaymin Eve, Leia Stone

out.
    “Mom, of course I forgive
you. It’s okay.” Yeah, it wasn’t really okay, she’d kind of effed-up my world,
but there was no point mentioning that now. The past couldn’t be changed and I
would never stop loving her. We hugged for a long time before I finally pulled
away. She looked into my eyes and chuckled.
    “You have his eyes now.
The crazy dancing green-silver.”
    That was interesting. I
was already curious about the difference in my eyes to the other ash, so much
more silver. And she was right, this weird dancing green, like an arc of
electricity, zagged through it.
    My mom leaned in very close.
“We could run away. I could give you blood. I don’t want you going through the
culling.”
    My heart pinched at her
words, her so very tempting words. But I knew there was no way. I needed blood
six times a day. Not to mention my crazy eyes. Humans would flip the hell out
and my mom would die of blood loss. “Mom, that’s sweet, but I don’t think we
would last very long on the run.” 
    I had already scoped the
plump throbbing vein in her neck more than once. My mom sighed. “Well, this
Lucas person seems to care about you. He sought me out and snuck me in here to
see you.” She raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you could use your female gifts to make sure he takes care of you.”
    Oh my God. She did not
just said that. “Female gifts? Are you whoring me out?”
    She laughed, and just
like that some of the heavy emotional stuff lifted and we were back to making
jokes. “I’m saying he’s in a place of power and you’re a good looking young
lady.”
    I plugged my ears. “La la
la. Oh my God, Mom.”
    She shrugged. “That’s all
I got. Those were the only two plans I had.” Her voice shook.
    I sat up straighter and
grasped her hands in a strong grip. “Well, I have a plan.”
    She looked hopeful.
    “I’m going to get some
big, buff, scary looking ash to teach me how to be a badass, murdering fighter,
and I’m going to survive the culling with my own two hands.”
    My mom smiled weakly as
if she didn’t believe that was possible. Great. Team Charlie, party of one. A
knock at the door jarred us from the moment. The stone barrier swung open. Red
was back. Her graceful catlike poise had me instinctively leaning in front of
my mother in a protective gesture. Home-girl looked ready to pounce at any
moment.
    “Number forty-six, your
time is up. The human must leave the Hive now. No more visitors until after the
culling, when you have earned the right, like everyone else.” She practically
spat out the last words.
    My mother and I shared a
look. Bitch . And the next person to call me number forty-six was getting
a fat lip. 
    I hugged my mom and took
one last sniff of her lilac and spearmint scent. If I closed my eyes I could
almost pretend for a moment I was back home. Then, with my heart heavy and my
eyes aching, I stood and followed Red. I turned back to meet my mom’s eyes one
more time, as another vampire appeared out of nowhere to escort her away.
    I struggled to get my
emotions under control the entire time I followed Red. Vamp-bitch dropped me
back off at the double doors on level eight, the training room. The only sound
in the space was her high heels clicking off back down the hallway. I took a
moment to gather myself, to focus.
    Training. Right. I was
going to train to fight for my life. Everything about this felt wrong. One
moment I was an upstanding human citizen and the next I was being booted to
bloodsucker-ville to fend for my life. Effed up. Well, maybe I wasn’t exactly
upstanding, but I wasn’t a complete drain on society. Now I felt discarded. Where
the hell were the police? Couldn’t I call 911 and get bailed out of this? Hah!
Yeah right. I was infected, no one wanted me.
    “Are you going to stand
out here all day or do you actually plan on learning something.”
    I tried not to jump as
Ryder’s deep voice broke through my thoughts. Dammit, he’d snuck up on me again.
I