by E. M. Moore
“Yes!”
Again, like before in the shower, he left my body with no time to recover in between the pleasure coursing through me. He rode it, heightening it until I knew I was about to come apart soon. My fingers clenched the sheets as I let him take me there. My body clenched around him, squeezing him with the ferocity of my orgasm until he cried out too, sinking one last stroke inside me as I felt him jerk and move. I collapsed on the bed, gasping for breath. He pulled out and followed after me, spooning me with his monstrous arms coming to rest around me and pulling me to him. “I love you, Ri.” He kissed my neck and whispered, “Thank you for letting me share that with you.”
I snuggled down into him, admiring the way his two personalities worked. He could be downright sinister yet warm like a teddy bear when I needed him to be. “I love you,” I said, my voice raspy with emotion. He rested his head next to mine so I could feel my hair move with his every breath.
Sex with Nicolai wasn’t a consolation prize for losing the fight with Dumont today. It was more of a fierce reminder of what we were trying to accomplish. Living without fear. Loving without complications. Enjoying little moments of bliss when we could. I kissed his arm because it was the only part of his body that was in front of me and closed my eyes, my body suddenly spent and catching up with all I’d done physically. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open if I’d wanted to before sleep took me, made even that more special since I was in the arms of one of my princes.
16
I wasn’t sure how much sleep I’d actually gotten before my cell phone rang.
I slipped out of Nic’s sleepy grasp and ran over to the dresser. It was a text from Christian. You might want to get to the cells. Dad’s furious and threatening to take out Soren. Soren’s asking for you.
“Shit.”
Nic stirred. He whipped around, his feet thudding to the floor and looking around in confusion before his eyes paused on me. Then, his shoulders relaxed. “What’s wrong?”
“Gregor’s with Soren, threatening to kill him.”
“Shouldn’t he? He sent you guys to your deaths.”
I started pulling clothes on and talking as I went. “I don’t think he meant to.”
Nic scoffed, but I threw his pants at him. He grabbed them out of the air and reluctantly got up.
“I really don’t. He told me he didn’t even know they were going to be there. He was just making his best guess. It wasn’t his fault Dumont’s a fucking evil genius. Emphasis on the evil.”
I slipped my coat on and went for the door. I turned, waiting for Nic to slip on his shoes before pulling it open and barreling down the hallway. Nic caught up with me in no time as we sprinted across the quad. Well, sprinted in my case, but I was pretty certain it was a slow jog for Nic. When we arrived at the stone building, I gasped for air, but he was as unaffected as if we’d just walked our way here. I glared at him, and he just chuckled, opening the door for me.
I made a bee line straight for the basement and took the steps with Nic hot on my heels. When we got close to the bottom, I heard shouting. Gregor, mostly, but Soren wasn’t taking it like a mime either. I ran forward, not sure what I was going to do, but I had to do something. I laid a hand on Gregor’s arm, and he tore it out of my touch in shock. “He will pay for what he has done.”
I looked back at Soren now, his gaze pleaded with me. Walking forward, I fixed him with a glare. “Did you know that would happen?”
He blinked. “You’re alright. They said one of you was injured.”
“Did you know that would happen?”
His gaze hardened. “I told you they would go there, and I was right. They were there. You were just too late.”
“Because of you,” Gregor roared.
Soren ignored him. I looked into his eyes, seeing a sorrow there I hadn’t noticed before. It didn’t have anything to do with his Sophie, but something else. He wanted Dumont to pay too, and we hadn’t done it.
“I need a list of all possible places Dumont could be. He’s taken far too many lives and injured too many, including you and Sophie.”
“Done.” His hands gripped the metal bars in front of him.
“He’s lying!”
Christian walked up to his father and lowered his voice. “Father, you put Lex in charge. Let her deal with this.”
I looked at Nic and mouthed, “Get him out of here.”
He nodded, and both he and Christian ushered Gregor up the stairs. When the door shut, I took a deep breath and faced Soren again. He eyed me while I sat in the chair in front of the cell again. “You look tired.”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
“But you’re not hurt?”
“A little banged up, but I’ll live. I don’t know if I can say that for my guardian friend.” I blew out a breath. “They know you gave their location away. The vampire said as soon as the bomb went off, Dumont would know you told them.”
Soren nodded. “I knew they would find out. Do you know who the vampire was that set the bomb off?”
I shrugged. “Funny thing is, I’m not sure he set it off. I killed him before he had a chance, but all of a sudden, it started counting down.”
“Dumont was probably listening in. There was a second detonator nearby, and he gave the signal.” I ran my hands through my hair and dropped my head in my hands. He reached out, but brought his hand back. “You carry a lot on your shoulders, Young One.”
“I have a lot to fight for.”
He slid to the floor and sat back against the cement wall. “I remember when I felt the same way. He won’t stop, you know.”
“I hope he doesn’t because when we take him out, it’s going to feel that much better.” I scuffed my foot against the cement. “You are going to tell me everything you know, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “And you’re still trying to help me?”
“I told you I would.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “It’s kind of nice thinking I could live a life like yours. Not the fighting part, but the living free part. Maybe if I get out of here, I’ll move to the Amazon and live in a hut.”
“Yeah? How would you feed?”
He shrugged. “Hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. Okay, maybe not that far out, but I want to live somewhere nice and peaceful. Somewhere where I won’t have to think about any of this, or even you, again. No offense.”
“None taken. I know the feeling.”
Wasn’t that what life was about? Finding your little bits of happiness and not giving up on them when you did?
I hoped he did find his place. Deep down inside, Soren was a good person who’d been warped by centuries of mindfuck. If he could recover from this and walk away, it would be another victory for us, another disentanglement of Dumont’s stranglehold on the unsuspecting.
“Why’d you tell me where Dumont was? Why are you helping us now?”
He pulled his legs up to his chest and laid his head down on his knees. “I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.”
“I guess I kind of do. I just mean why me? Why do it for me? Why ask for me?”
Soren closed his eyes. “Have you noticed that people are just drawn to you? It’s not just that prince of yours, but it’s the guard who keeps talking about killing me. And the woman, they both speak highly of you. Even Ravana and his other prince, they were just in here talking about what they would do if they lost you. I read people well, and from the moment I met you, I knew you were different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s just something about you, the way you act, the way you care, the way you talk that just makes others want to believe in you. At first, you were too much like Dumont for my taste.”
I gasped, the pleasure I felt from his praise erased as soon as he said those words. I was nothing like Dumont. How could he even—?
“But you’re not,” he quickly added. “Dumont has a way of getting others to follow him, but you don’t want people to follow you. You want people to s
tand by you. That’s a big difference, Young One. One you should remember, too. Followers don’t bring you anything but servants. Those who will just roll over and do whatever you want. But equals, those who stand next to you, they bring you people who are willing to fight for you even if it’s in a way you wouldn’t suspect.”
I nodded as he spoke, the truth hitting me right in the core. It was one of the reasons why I knew the Ravanas should be the ones in power. They were open-minded and fair. They didn’t discriminate or pass down harsh judgments without cause. We’d already started the steps of having the guards be more involved, and the princes and I had started to try to get both sides to come together, not just in politics, but in social situations, too. If we were going to win this, we were going to do it together, the vampires and guards united. And I had just the idea to get the ball rolling…
17
I tucked my hair behind my ears and matched Christian stride for stride as we made our way to the Council meeting room. The last time I’d been here hadn’t gone that well for me, or the rest of the guards, but today would be different.
I had a plan.
At least the start of one. A damn good start to one. I reached out to squeeze Christian’s hand and then brought my fingers back, the tips tingling with his touch. He arched an eyebrow at me. “What was that for?”
For being you. That was too girly of a thing to say at the moment though. I was a few minutes out from addressing The Council as a nobody. Sure, I’d gotten a medal and behaved honorably, blah, blah, blah, but there was still all that pesky prejudice about guards. Dwindling or not, there were people like Philippe Checkov out there. Who knew if anyone would even hear me out? I could just end up being the butt of everybody’s jokes for the next century. Stupid vampires and their immortality.
I breathed out and smiled at him. “For sticking your neck out for me.”
His lips thinned as he regarded me. I hadn’t told him my ideas, and he actually didn’t look all that nervous that I hadn’t. I wanted my plan to be fresh and new in everybody’s eyes, so we could build on the foundation from there. “I trust you, Ariana. You say you got a plan that’ll work, and I believe you. You’ve got just as much at stake as the rest of us.” He turned away. “Even more.”
The recent events had only served to make Christian that much more serious. He kept a damper on it when he was around me. He was just Christian then. He wasn’t Christian Ravana, next in line to rule The Council. “What do you mean?”
He tucked his hands in the pockets of his pants and shrugged. “I guess what Nicolai’s been saying is getting to me. How unfair it all is. We’re sending you guards out there to die when this is a vampire problem. I mean, Matthews…” He trailed off, his face pained.
I couldn’t help but be struck again on what a great leader Christian would make. He felt for his people, even those the majority of his kind felt were lesser than. “Matthews did what he did because he wanted to. The more you try and separate us, the worse off it will be. We need to work together—all of us. We’re all in this world for better or for worse. You’ve already let some of the guards out who wanted it. If anyone wants out of this life, I say let them. But the people who are still here, especially ones like Matthews, are here because they want to be. We’re not fighting your fight. We’re fighting our fight.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You should’ve saved that for The Council.”
I chuckled. “It was pretty good, wasn’t it? I’m sure I can replicate it. Just wait until I get started.”
“I have no doubt you’ll amaze me like you always do.”
I stopped in the middle of the hall leading to the Council room. So in tune with me, Christian stopped and waited at the very same time. His cheeks flushed, and he looked to the floor. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. I swallowed the sudden dryness in my throat and tried to squelch the urge to rise up onto my tiptoes and kiss him. For that moment, he was a magnet, and I was metal, wanting nothing more than to cling to him, to feel his arms wrap around me.
“Don’t look at me like that right now.” He looked down again and shuffled his feet. “It’s like torture.”
I lifted my hands to my cheeks and felt the heat blazing from my skin. I rubbed them briefly and then followed the line of my chin to rest my hands at the back of my neck. “Sorry?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Come on, we’ll be late.”
He opened the door at the end of the hall for me, and like last time, my feet were like cement bricks as we walked in, as if my whole body was trying to tell me I didn’t belong here. I probably didn’t, but I was doing it anyway. It took me a while to realize the vampires in this world hadn’t really gone through anything like this either. Gregor and his Council were just grasping at straws on what to do. They had to deal with outside forces, humans mostly, who might threaten their way of living, but it had been a long, long time since they had to make changes within their realm. When I realized they were newbies at this too, a whole new thought process started to open up. We—any of us—shouldn’t sit back and wait to take direction, we needed to take action. Gregor was doing his part by putting Lex in charge, but we needed something more than that too. A plan that didn’t just involve security tactics.
I just hope this worked.
The room felt the same when we walked in. Old world meeting new world in a way that just worked seamlessly. A heaviness hung over us as Christian and I walked down the aisle. The council members were already at their seats in the front. The old vamp Checkov, whom I was pretty sure hated me from our last run-in, wasn’t there. His chair sat empty, and I looked up at Christian who seemed to be eyeing it too. The audience seats in the Council room were all but bare, not like the last time I’d been here when there’d barely been a seat to be had. The meeting was short-notice, but I hoped this wasn’t a sign about how my plans would be treated.
When I looked up again, I noticed Gregor and the other vampires who’d been on The Council before, including Isabelle, staring at me. Joining them now were my princes. Christian walked past all of them and took the seat next to his father. He’d left me by the first row which held Lex and T.J. They scooted over so I could sit down next to them. Gregor shook his head and beckoned me forward.
I stood on shaky legs and took the couple of steps to the raised platform where the long table sat in the center. The chair my princes had sat in one-by-one the last time we were here was gone. Next to the empty space sat Stephan at the very end who smiled at me; then Connor, who looked amused; Nicolai whose arms were crossed over his chest, then Christian, and finally Gregor. All in a row like charming, handsome sentinels. The sight of them almost took my breath away. When I’d seen them for the first time, I thought they were intimidating and powerful. They still were, just in a less frightening way. If I didn’t know them, I’d wonder why Nicolai looked as if he was angry with me or what Connor thought was so funny or why Stephan’s smile made me uneasy. They were vampires after all, and I was just a mere human brought into this world to be their puppet.
That was so far from the truth though. So very, very far.
Gregor leaned over the table when I got there. His sleek hair was properly gelled into place like usual. His not even middle-aged looks were so profound, so filled with wisdom, that whenever I looked at him, I felt his air of superiority. It was palpable in the room. We did as he said. It was as simple as that. “Philippe’s not coming. You may start.”
I swallowed and stood up straight, staring at the rest of the line of vampires at the table. At that moment, with all eyes on me, it hit me. This was a crazy ridiculous scene no one would believe. A room filled with vampires and their human guards. If I went back to the human world with a story like this, everyone I met would think I was insane. They would literally lock me up in a psychiatric institute. But yet, I’d never felt more alive here. This was my home. This was my life now, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I lowered my head. “Members of the Council…�
�� I turned on a whim and bowed my head toward Lex and T.J. “Members of the security team. I thank you all for coming here today. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, I am Ariana Stuart, trainee at the Rajyvik Institute.”
The woman vampire at the end of the table laughed. “We know who you are Ariana. Your name has quickly spread throughout our community. I bet you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know you.”
I forced out a nervous chuckle and continued. I couldn’t tell if being well known was a good thing or a bad thing. “I won’t bore you with details, and we’ll get right down to what I wanted to talk to you all about then. Our prisoner from the attack on The Fort has found it necessary to speak only to me, which led to our decision to raid a factory in Calcutta a couple days ago. Though we’re all aware how that turned out, leading to an injury of one of our most respected guards, we were able to glean information from that, and I’d like to take it a step further.” I walked back and forth in front of the table, making sure to lock eyes with Lex and T.J. every once in a while. The other vampires strewn throughout the room, however, I completely ignored. “Soren, our prisoner, has given me the locations of all possible places Dumont could be. I’ve shared those locations with our security team who are now cross analyzing that information with the number of human disappearances in the area, and even crime and homicides, so we can make our best guess as to where he is.”
“How’s that going?” Gregor asked.
He looked at me, and I looked back at Lex. She stood. “Well, Sir, since Matthews is unavailable at the moment, we’ve had to use some trainees to do the work so it started out a little slow, but we’re making headway now. It was a brilliant idea Stuart had. I only wish we had Matthews’ tech savvy abilities at our disposal.”
“I can help.”
All eyes turned toward the table. I knew who’d spoken before even looking that way. I’d recognize his voice anywhere, but still, the surprise rocked me when I looked at Connor. The grin was gone from his face. His eyebrows were pulled down, serious and astute, as he leaned across the table, his hands clasped in front of him.