by E. M. Moore
I sat on his legs to look him in the eye. My heart beat like mad in my chest. “Stephan, please tell me you’re joking. You don’t think my feelings changed because of what happened, do you? You saved…everybody. I’ve just been trying to give you time.”
A shuddering sigh ripped through Stephan before I was once again clasped to his chest like a rag doll. “Get closer,” he said.
I wrapped my arms around him and held on for dear life. He held me so close and so hard it almost took my breath away, but I’d rather stop breathing than tell Stephan not to hold me like this, like I was his lifeline.
I dropped a kiss on his shoulder, then his neck as I tilted my head toward him. Finally, at the pulse point below his ear, I kissed him slowly, gingerly. “If I’d known you wanted this, I would’ve been first in line.”
“You’re the only one I want in line.”
Just from the tension in Stephan’s body, I could feel his swirling emotions, and I was caught right up in them. In the back of my mind, I remembered what I was supposed to be doing—telling Stephan about our summons to the main house, but this was way more important. It was time for someone to heal the healer.
“What can I do?” I pleaded, feeling the tremors raking his body.
“This,” he whispered. “Always this.”
His breath on my ear made me shudder. His grip around me tightened. I tried to push all my thoughts away, the kind that went beyond just hugs and kisses and comfort. There was another kind of comfort, a deeper kind that kept rearing up in my brain, but it wasn’t appropriate right now. Not outside, and definitely not within the walls of The Fort, no matter how secluded this tree was or how close to the outside world it was.
Another thought battled that one. Stephan needed me. He needed to know how much I cared, and I could show him so easily, so blissfully.
I moaned into him as my body reacted to my thoughts. That familiar heat pooled in my lower stomach again, and my thighs tingled with need. What I wouldn’t give right now to prove to Stephan how much I cared, to take this feeling with me, solidifying our relationship.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pushed off Stephan and slid through the grass until I was about two feet away from him, my breath coming in gasps as I stared. “I’m sorry,” I said. In my mind, I was already throwing myself at him, and when I looked up at the vampire prince, his face was earnest, intense green eyes slicing through the distance between us. I gulped and tried to smile. “That’s probably one of your brothers.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I actually came out here for a reason. Everyone is blowing up your phone because we’ve been summoned to the main house regarding some sort of Council business.”
His eyebrow arched high over his eye. “All of us?”
I nodded. “Me too, apparently.”
He moved forward, crawling his way through the distance between us as if he were prowling. He stopped right in front of my face at the barrier between the dark and the light. Somehow, I’d managed to throw myself so far off that I wasn’t under the mesh screen. The sunlight poured down on top of me, warming my skin as if it needed to be any hotter than it already was. He looked down at the line between the shadow and light and didn’t hesitate to cross it. His fingers reached out and touched my cheek. “I want you, too, Ariana. Please don’t be ashamed of your feelings.”
I rubbed my face and avoided eye contact. “It’s all so new to me.”
A small smile graced his face. At least, I hoped it was a smile and not a grimace due to the sun. I scooched closer to him, making sure I was completely under the shade of the tree now. He smiled. “It’s new to me, too.” He let out a breath of surprise. “I dream about you, you know. I hope when the time comes, reality will be even better. Right now, I’m kind of just glad I still have a chance. I thought maybe my actions changed your mind about me.”
He reached out and his finger traced the black ink on my arm. I shivered. “Never,” I said, shaking my head adamantly. “You did what I couldn’t, what I—”
“Shh,” he said, interrupting me. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I really don’t want to think about it anymore. I want to enjoy you, Ariana. Only you. Well, first I suppose we have to go see what The Council wants, but after that…well, I feel like I have some time to make up.”
I chuckled, thinking back on his reclusive nature the past couple weeks. I hoped this meant a turning point for him. Maybe his brothers wouldn’t be so worried about him. Maybe I wouldn’t be so worried about him either.
He stood and helped me to my feet. “I do miss all my palm rubs,” I said weakly.
He chuckled. “One of my brothers didn’t take over for me?”
I shrugged. “They don’t have the same touch you do.”
His green eyes darkened a second before he bowed his head and pressed his lips to mine. It was sweet and perfect, and I took it for what it was: a promise for more.
3
Stephan’s phone rang three more times as we made our way across the large courtyard and then to the backside of The Fort where the entrance to the Rajyvik main house lay. I hadn’t been here since the night I was taken. When I stepped past the iron gate that led to the walkway to the main house, I shivered. To distract myself, I asked, “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
He shrugged. “What good would it do? We’re going to see them in two minutes.”
Famous last words. As soon as he said that, my phone started ringing. I picked it out of my pocket and answered Dark, Sexy & Badass. “Hello?”
“Seriously?” Stephan asked, his face scrunching up in confusion.
I held my fingers over my lips to keep from smiling. He’d seen the name that came up on my phone for Nicolai.
A whisper came through the speaker. “Are you guys on your way? I can’t get Stephan to pick up.”
“We’re almost there,” I said, spying the front door only about a hundred feet or so in front of us. “Give us like, two minutes.”
“Good. Dad’s in rare form.”
I groaned inwardly. Gregor Ravana and I had gotten off on the right foot, and then things took a little turn for the worse when I found out he’d voted to kill Kay’s baby, thus making her vampire lover kill himself. After everything that happened, he told us he had a plan so she could have her baby, but her lover had been too hasty and offed himself before he had a chance to implement it, which made her go crazy with revenge. I looked up to find Stephan watching me. At least some of the pain was out of his eyes. I hoped whatever their father was about to say didn’t bring it all up again. “We’re practically there. See you in a few.”
I hung up the phone, slipped it back in my pocket, and then entwined my fingers with his. He looked down at our hands and smiled. “Out of curiosity, what does my name say?”
I blushed. I had yet to change the names in the phone, leaving them to what Nic had put in my Contacts for his brothers and himself, which is why he was Dark, Sexy & Badass. “Just so you know, I didn’t put that in there. Nic did.”
Stephan chuckled. The sound was like the perfect lullaby. “Trust me, I figured that out. But, you didn’t answer my question. What’s my name say?”
I shrugged, hoping for nonchalance. “Don’t know. It’s not like I pay attention, really.”
“Ariana…” Stephan reached into my pocket for my phone. I tried to block him, but they were so darn quick! I cringed as he went through my Contacts. Then, his thumb stopped scrolling and moved the screen back up. It wasn’t as if I had many names in there to begin with. His would be easy to figure out. “I see,” he said, nodding his head. “We’ll just have to fix this.”
When we got to the door, Stephan paused and typed out something with the on-screen keyboard. His perfect lips pulled up into a smirk. Then, he handed the phone back to me and pulled the door open. Samuel was right there, but I glanced down at my screen, anyway. Ariana’s Savior.
My heart melted. He leaned over and whispered, “You said that to me once…right after…”
I nodded, remembering. “It’s perfect.”
Samuel cleared his throat. Both Stephan and I looked up. The guard trainer’s hands were on his hips. He motioned with his head toward the back hall. “They’re all back there.”
His demeanor didn’t seem to bother Stephan. I had a different rapport with Samuel though. He could make me run laps, do push-ups and burpees if I didn’t respect him. “Sorry we’re late.”
Stephan pulled me to his side and escorted me to the back of the house. When we were out of earshot, he leaned down and said, “You didn’t have to apologize to him, Ariana.”
“Sorry?”
Stephan gave me a sideways glance. “Don’t apologize to me either.”
I gave him a quick nod, and then he pushed open a large, dark wood door. A table sat in the middle of the room. The Ravana princes all sat around the table and in front of us on a large screen held the face of Gregor Ravana. He eyed Stephan warily, and then his lips thinned as he regarded all of his sons. “Now that we’re all here…”
A flicker of embarrassment ran up my spine. Connor turned completely around in his chair and rolled his eyes so his father would never be able to catch him. I stifled a grin and then went over and took the seat next to him. I had no idea what this was about, but if I had to go through it, it would be nice to go through it with Connor who never seemed to take too much seriously. He gave my thigh a squeeze under the table, and then we all turned toward Gregor. I was hoping to see Isabelle, the Ravanas’ mother with him, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“I’ll make this as brief as possible. Due to Kay’s transgression, The Council would like an informational session with all parties involved, including you four, and you, Ariana.”
“Ariana?” Christian said. His blue-gray eyes flicked to me in alarm. Already my Spidey senses were going off. “For what purpose? The Council has never requested the presence of a trainee before.”
“I believe that’s because trainees have never given us cause to.”
Nic leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands over his chest. He looked just as perfect as he had when we left the training facility earlier. “Like Ri begged to get kidnapped.”
I shot him a death glare. He knew I hated that word. Not my nickname, but kidnapped. It was all over the newspaper afterward. “Trainee, Kidnapped,” “Kidnapped Trainee None Other Than Ravanas’ Choice,” and my personal favorite, “Trainee Gets Kidnapped, Princes Save Her.” That particular newspaper now lived in the bottom of my trashcan.
“No one is suggesting she did, but the rest of The Council wants to hear what happened from the mouths of the people that were there. My debriefing wasn’t sufficient enough for them.”
Christian leaned closer. “What does that mean?”
Gregor’s stone-hard eyes gleamed. From this end of the table, it looked as if he never stood down from a fight. I supposed when you held the most power out of the whole vampire world, you had to be that way. Sure, he was a part of The Council that made all the decisions, but the Ravana line was one of royalty in this world. He was respected, and apparently, hated. He had enemies, and since he had enemies, so did the princes—and me. Sometimes I thought we were just barely beginning to scratch the surface when it came to who wanted the Ravana Clan out of power. Of course, no one had come right out and shown themselves yet, but to me, it was only a matter of time. Maybe this was the start of a play by one of the other clans. To answer Christian’s question, I asked one of my own. “Is it possible this is the start of the struggle for power?”
Gregor’s eyes moved to me. His appraising look didn’t bother me as much as it had when we first met. I didn’t need him to like me. I only needed him to trust me. He nodded slowly. “That is my opinion, yes.”
“Here we go,” Connor said sarcastically. “It starts. So we stifled a problem, what’s the big deal? I can’t remember anyone else going in front of The Council to plead their case when they killed a guard.”
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the room. My gaze immediately flicked to Stephan who had taken a seat next to Nicolai. His face was white. Connor looked apologetic, but thankfully, Christian kept the conversation going, artfully taking the attention away from his brother. “Connor’s got a point,” he hedged.
Gregor threw his shoulders back. “In no way are we pleading our case. I made that abundantly clear with them. You are to come in, give the facts, and then we are leaving. You will each go up individually and give your sides to the story. No one is in trouble now, nor will they be afterward unless they want to deal with me.”
I believed him. His voice had lowered to that guttural tenor that meant business. It reminded me of that saying, alpha male. The room was silent for a few moments before I thought of something. Gregor hadn’t mentioned Zeke. He was at school again after taking a few days off, not that I’d gone up and had a conversation with him yet. But since he was there, too, wouldn’t The Council want his side of the story as well? I asked Gregor as much, and he shook his head. “We thought it best not to trouble him during his time of mourning. My sons can speak for him since they are the ones who got him involved.”
Gregor’s eyebrow peaked at that as he took turns staring at his sons. I squirmed in my seat as the tension built even though we were in different rooms hundreds of miles apart. Gregor was nothing if not intimidating.
“Is that all?” Nic finally asked. He had that bored look on his face again, but it was just a mask. I could see the troubled look behind his strong jaw.
“There’s just one more thing. Ariana, you are dismissed. I shall see you next week.”
I froze for a second and then stood. I’d literally just been shooed out of the room. I could feel the heat already on my face as I pushed my chair in. The princes better tell me what was said once they get out of here. I gave the Ravanas’ father a curt nod, and then walked from the room, pulling the door closed as silent as I could.
Movement caught my eye, and I whirled, my hands coming up into fighting position. Truly, it wasn’t my fault. I’d been taken off guard too many times. I was ingraining this reaction into me so it would never happen again.
Samuel smirked at my hands. “Good conversion. I think you can be quicker next time though.”
My heart beat once in my throat and then started to subside as I realized there was no real threat. “Did you wait outside just to see my reaction?”
Samuel chuckled. His handsome face was clear of any defect, which was common amongst vampires. He was the first vampire I’d ever seen, and even when I didn’t know they existed, I knew there was something different about this person. He pushed himself away from the wall. “Sadly, no, I hadn’t thought of that. I could start adding that to training if you’d like, though.”
I shrugged, not wanting to give him any ideas that he could take and run away with. Since he was a Rajyvik, he was in charge of our training at The Fort. That’s what their clan did in the vampire world and had been doing so for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. “I am keeping my mouth shut on that one. What would the rest of the trainees say if you told them it was my fault you had another excuse to torture us?”
He gave a cocky nod of his head as if to say he wouldn’t care. I believed him. Though we’d come to a bit of a mutual understanding lately, Samuel hadn’t liked the fact that I was brought here in the first place. Then, after he saw what I could do—or should I say, could not do—he was even more upset about it. Now that my training had improved, we were on firmer ground with one another, but it was tenuous at best. I still felt like an outsider around him. In some ways, I still was. I didn’t have the normal life other trainees here at The Fort had. Not by a long shot. For starters, if I didn’t screw it up, I knew exactly where I’d be stationed when I completed my training. The other trainees weren’t so lucky. The better you did, the more prominent your station was. Though I was pretty much guaranteed the Ravana Clan, as long as I didn’t fall flat on my face, that still didn’t hold me back fr
om wanting to earn it. At least in that, I believed Samuel respected me.
“How did it go in there?” he asked, not bothering to curb his curiosity.
“Fine, I guess. The Council wants the princes and myself to go to a meeting to tell them exactly what happened with Zeke’s mom.”
“You, too? He wants you there?”
“Yup,” I said, not even attempting to mask my anxiety about it. “The princes said a trainee has never been asked to report to a Council meeting before…”
Samuel rubbed at the scruff on his chin. Unlike humans who sprouted the stubble because they didn’t bother to shave, Samuel’s hint of a beard was almost a piece of art on his chin. It made him look more refined and sophisticated. “I suppose they haven’t. It is kind of odd. How did the princes react?”
I looked at him for a long time, wondering how I should answer. The truth was, I didn’t think they were all that thrilled about it, but I also didn’t know if that was something I should be saying to Samuel or not. Probably not. “Father’s orders, right? He said it’s next week.”
“I suppose that’s a good a time as any to leave here. Since we’re heading into a new semester, we’re going to take a short break. We’re waiting on some new instructors to get settled, and with what happened with Zeke’s mom, I think we all could use it.”
That was the truth. I’d thrown myself into training when I got back here, and not totally because I desperately needed it. The other part of my reasoning was because the other trainees were starting to stare at me instead of ignoring me. Even Shannon, Liv, and Evan had kept their distance. The guard dying—wait, scratch that. It wasn’t really her dying; it was her being killed by Stephan that set everyone on edge. The tension that thickened the air when one of the Ravanas was seen on campus now was palpable. Then, the whispers started. Was that the one? No, I don’t think so. It was the blond-haired one, right? I don’t know. Maybe. It went on and on until I noticed even the princes had started to feel the impact.