The Ravana Clan Vampires: a Young Adult Paranormal Romance (Complete Series)

by E. M. Moore

  Connor did have tech skills. He’d helped during the attacks on The Fort, being our tech guy for that mission, but I had no idea he’d ever thought about doing it since them. Lex looked at Gregor, unsurprisingly unwilling to accept his offer without confirmation first. Gregor leaned over and locked eyes with his son. He nodded, then looked back at Lex. “Connor will help you with anything you need on that front.”

  My eyes immediately flicked to Nicolai. The muscles in his forearms bulged as if he were clenching his hands into fists, but you’d never know it from looking at his face. It was just as dark and intimidating as it ever was, without the feeling of being betrayed behind it.

  “Thank you both,” Lex said. “I will speak to Connor after the meeting.”

  She looked at me and I continued on. “Though we have that information to begin with, I don’t think we should stop there. It has been years, even centuries, since anything like this has happened to your world, and there is so much more available for our use in this instance to track him down.” I looked each Council member in the eye. “It may seem like an…interesting idea at first, but I believe you will find it sound once I give you the particulars.” I took a deep breath and launched forward, trying not to get caught up in my own head. “Because of where I come from, I have a different perspective and a different way of thinking in regards to finding Dumont. If there was someone who was wanted for crimes out there, out in the human world, it would be plastered all over the news. By keeping this just a vampire problem, we’re blocking ourselves from using true search techniques. Dumont is a purist. He feeds from humans, which also means there’s no way he’s going to go around the country one-hundred percent undetected. At this point, I can tell you that the list of locations where he could be are strewn all across the United States, and even a couple places in Europe. Because of this, I think we should start a massive search for him and utilize outside factors. We should use search techniques the way humans do. Can we get his face on wanted posters? Can we get him on news stations? He has killed and murdered humans. We can utilize this to our advantage. The first step could be working with human law enforcement. Do we have any contacts in the human police world?”

  Gregor shook his head, and then looked down the line. Each of them in turn also shook their heads.

  I shrugged. “That’s okay. We still have other options.”

  “We could make a Facebook post,” Christian suggested. “We can try to get it to go viral.”

  Gregor’s brows furrowed. “Facebook?”

  I suppressed a laugh, smashing my lips together at Gregor’s confusion. “Excellent idea. We can use the power of social media to reach people all over the place. That’s just one part of the plan though. We have to get everybody here working together too. Let’s be open and honest about what it will mean if Dumont is able to gain control over The Council. Let’s spread the word to the outlying clans about what a change like this would mean. If we got everyone working together, on our side, we would be unstoppable. What if every clan kept their eyes and ears open for information? This isn’t just a Ravana Clan problem, this is a vampire world problem. If they like the way they live now, they should want to help keep it that way. Even if they like to keep to themselves, that’s even better. What will Dumont do to those clans who don’t want to be that involved?” I looked around at everyone’s mute faces. “You’re going to have to help me out because I wasn’t here when Dumont was in charge.”

  “You’re talking about spreading propaganda,” Christian said, his head tilted as he looked at me.

  I didn’t like the negative connotation to that word, but I guess I was. “I just think we all need to see that if Dumont takes over The Council, if Dumont succeeds in killing off the Ravana Clan like he wants to, more things are going to change then what initially gets talked about. This will impact everyone, and since it will impact everyone, everyone should be involved in it. I think all it will take is for word to spread on what a Dumont leadership will mean for others. We should all be rallying together as equals. It’s not just the guards who have something to fight for in this, it’s the vampires too, and not just the ones who regularly come to Council meetings either.”

  Gregor sat back and crossed his arms. I peeked briefly at Nicolai, and then did a double take. They might not have been family in the human sense, borne from one another, but their look, their gestures were the same. There were more things that made people family than just blood and DNA. “I had never thought of this type of wide-scale attack on Dumont.” He tapped his lips with his pointer finger. “It’s brilliant. There is no way Dumont’s army would’ve gone unnoticed for all this time. He would’ve had to build this up over the past few centuries just to become big enough to launch an attack against us. Why cannot we do the same thing? I will reach out to the clans to beg for their assistance as soon as possible.” He looked down the line, his eyes lingering on Isabelle the longest, but then further as he gazed at every member of The Council. “I will implore all of you to do as Miss Stuart says. We all have friends and families in the farthest reaches. Perhaps they have heard something of Dumont over the centuries that we can use to figure out where he is. Perhaps even some know where he is—”

  “If they know where he is, I doubt they will want to come forward for fear of retribution,” the woman vampire at the end of the table said.

  Gregor’s lips thinned as the thought about it. “As long as they are on our side, there is no punishment. All of us at this table remember what it was like to live under Dumont’s rule. If we don’t wish to live that way again, we all need to do something about it. This young trainee is correct. It’s not just a problem for the security team, but for everyone.” He stood from his seat and walked out to the front of the table. I moved away from the center and stood next to Stephan who briefly squeezed my hand.

  Gregor stood at the front, looking straight out at the inhabited seats in front of him. Not at Lex and T.J., but at the smattering of vampires and guards who’d decided to come to today’s Council meeting. “This means you all, too. I have never closed a Council meeting. They are for everyone in our world to learn about what is going on if they wish to, but you will see none of that if Dumont takes power and stands where I am. It is up to us to fight for what is right and speak out against what is wrong. Dumont’s tactics are hurting, killing others. Do you think he will stop at humans? Or guards?” Gregor shook his head. “He never did before. I implore you all to go home and start asking questions. Call your neighbors and friends and family. Ask the questions no one wants to. You might not find anything out, but you definitely won’t if you don’t try. Don’t let your one contact be the thing that could’ve saved our world from the oppressive ruling of the Dumont Clan.” His stare focused on each person in the audience momentarily. I could tell where his gaze went by the posture of those he looked at. Each one sat up straighter, and I hoped, I wished, they were all getting a backbone.

  Gone were the days of the guards fighting solely for the vampires’ freedom and safety. We were a team now.

  18

  After the Council members and audience members left, Stephan returned to the library where he’d been looking up books on how to treat Matthews, Nicolai exited in a huff right after his father’s emotional speech, and Connor jumped down from the raised platform to speak to Lex. It was just me and Christian and Gregor and Isabelle at the table. Isabelle squeezed her husband’s hand. “This is the way,” she said, smiling at me.

  Christian told his parents goodbye, and then took my hand, leading me out a back door. Shadows crept across the hallway from the small wall sconces spaced every few feet. His hand tightened around mine as I asked, “What is this? I don’t remember you showing me this before.”

  “It’s the secret entrance. It’s how my father always magically shows up at a Council meeting without having to go through the front doors. It’s linked to our area of the house, and—” Christian pushed open a door and a rush of diluted sunlight shone into the room
. “—the canopy, we call it.”

  My mouth opened as I took in my surroundings. I’d seen this room only once before during my tour of the Ravana Estate, but we’d come through the main entrance, which wasn’t quite so rain forest-like. Trees arched above us with a handful of singing birds, but beyond the leaves, I saw the same old mesh I always did when one lived around vampires. If I’d ever thought I would miss the sun by being with vampires, I was wrong. I still got it, just not with all the harmful side-effects for the men I loved. “It’s beautiful.”

  He pulled me to a bench next to a small fountain of trickling water, his hand still in mine. “I realized something today.” He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them. “You’re probably a hundred times smarter than I am.”

  I shook my head, laughing. Something about the canopy made my heart race. Maybe it was the chirping birds along with the soft sounds of the water pattering, but it was tranquil, yet exciting at the same time. Then again, maybe that was just the way Christian made me feel. “You’re crazy.”

  “It’s true.” He pushed a few strands of hair behind my ears. “I feel like you know exactly what to do in these situations, and myself, and my father, are always floundering.”

  “In a lot of ways—though you’re ancient to some—you’re still a small, fledgling sector of the world. Because you’re so reserved, so hidden, you haven’t had to deal with some of the things the human world has had to. That’s where I got my ideas from. It’s not like they magically came to me in the night. I just decided to start thinking rationally for once. Start using human tactics in this world because isn’t that what Dumont’s doing? He’s just being a bully for the sake of being a bully. So, he wants power? Well, we’re not going to give him that. We’re going to take the power he thinks he has away from him. Right now, his power is that he can fade away without being seen, but that’s not going to work too much longer. In any case, you have a lot more things I don’t have, Christian Ravana.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  I blushed. “You have the same aura your father does. When you talk, people just want to listen. You have this foundation in strength, Christian, that I don’t think you realize you have. You’re calm, level-headed, and fair. You’re the perfect person to replace your father when the time comes, or to rule side-by-side with. When Gregor summed everything I’d said up at the end, it came out so much more eloquently than I put it.”

  Christian squeezed my hand. “The only person I want to rule side-by-side with is you.”

  My eyes widened. “Me? Are you crazy? I know we’ve been making a lot of headway, but I doubt they’ll let a guard do that any time soon.”

  Christian shook his head. “I mean when you’re a vampire.”

  I gasped, a short intake of breath that collected all his trust in me and dispersed it throughout my chest. There’d been so little time to think about what I was going to do after graduation. Right now, I was happy being a guard. I liked what I was doing even though I was constantly putting myself at risk. But what if I did want to be like them? What then?

  “I know it’s a lot to think about, but I see you by my side, Ariana. I see you addressing The Council, using your wisdom and strength to lead us all. I see you as the peak of femininity. A woman all vampires should aspire to be. Strong and beautiful. Wise and empowered.”

  “I haven’t—”

  He smiled shyly. “I know you haven’t thought about it. It’s a big decision, I get it. Lots of factors.”

  “A lot of factors,” I agreed. I touched his chin and grinned up at him. “I want to be with you forever. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would be the happiest if I had all of you for years and years to come. I guess the only question is when. I mean, do you want a family, Christian? Kids? What about your brothers? There’s a timeline we have to think about…”

  He swallowed hard, his chest rising. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying…” A cold sweat started at my forehead then down the back of my skull to my neck. I stared into his blue-gray eyes and tried to relax. “I’m saying if we changed some rules, maybe we could actually have kids of our own, that were a part of us. The only way we can do that is if I’m human though.”

  He shook his head. “I never… I never thought of that. For me, it’s always been that we couldn’t have kids that way, but—” He groaned. “To have a young one that’s part you and part me would be… I don’t have words for it, Ariana. You would give me that?”

  I smiled, clinging to the emotion in his eyes. “I would try. Growing up, I always thought I didn’t want a family, or kids, at least. I saw what happened to those who were left behind, but this is like the perfect scenario for someone who grew up like me, Christian. What more could I ask for? You have basically immortal parents and children that would never leave each other. I mean, I think children would be immortal. Is there any evidence about what kind of child a human and a vampire make?”

  Christian grinned. “They are immortal, just like their vampire parent.”

  Despite myself, a glimmer of heat shone in my eyes. I hoped Christian didn’t notice, but there wasn’t anything he didn’t. “I’m fine,” I told him after he tried to wipe the tear from my eye. “You don’t know what it’s like to have the promise that the people you love are always going to be there. Out there,” I said, gesturing outside our canopy, outside our safe little world, “it’s not like that. You wake up every day not knowing what could happen. Life is so fragile. Here…”

  Christian picked me up and set me on his lap. He pulled my hair behind my shoulders and tracked a finger across my cheek. “…you wouldn’t have to worry so much. I get it.” He pulled down on my neck so that my head rested on his. “I want to give you that life, never so much than right now.”

  I sucked in a breath as I felt him hardening between us. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head in his shoulder. “There’s so much to figure out, so much to still do.”

  “We’ve got time,” he said, his voice a promise. The truth rang in my chest with a ferocity I didn’t expect.

  I didn’t even have to tell him I hoped he was right because somewhere inside, I knew he was. A seedling of hope started in my stomach and started to bloom. We’d defeat Dumont. I’d graduate and become a guardian while the Ravanas worked toward equal rights for guards, including the freedom for us all to be together and to do what we wanted. I didn’t know how long I’d stay human, but I’d be a guard forever. Christian said he saw me ruling with him. I’d never thought about it before. Doing something like that hadn’t even been a blip on my radar when I was who I was before, but now that I was home, now that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, I could do it. I did it just now, today, standing up in front of The Council and serving up ideas to help save our world from the clutches of a madman, and I’d do it again no matter what befell this world. It wasn’t just their world anymore; it was my world too. There was no going back for me.

  I kissed a trail down Christian’s neck and worked my hands up under his shirt to splay my fingers across his bare skin. He was all sinewy muscle that delighted my fingers as I explored him. I worked his shirt off and kissed down his throat to his chest before I slipped off his lap and moved lower. Christian was the only prince I’d wrapped my lips around and brought to orgasm this way. It’d been a fierce, triumphant feeling, like he was putty in my hands. Like he was at my beck and call, and I could do with him what I wanted. I liked that feeling of power and strength, that knowledge that just I was good enough for him.

  He leaned back, and I kissed a trail down his abdomen until I got to the tops of his pants. I hovered there, teasing him by rocking back on my heels and looking up. His face was pure, strained pleasure. It was a cross between wanting to tell me I didn’t have to, but wanting me so badly all the same. I pushed my finger to my lips to quiet his worries and then worked the button through the hole in his pants, then lowered the zipper. “Someone might come in,” Christian said, his voice husky, unteth
ered as I lowered his pants along with his boxer briefs.

  “You can move quick. I have faith in you.”

  I took him in my hand and felt all his hard ridges from base to tip before stroking him into my mouth. My eyes almost rolled back as I felt him inside. Before I’d met anyone I loved, I hadn’t quite understood this act. What was the purpose? But now, it meant so much to me. I buried him inside, taking all of him, along with his short breaths and unrestrained hip movements. It helped that Christian was a sight to see. He was beautifully handsome, sculpted with marble and a fierceness that I admired at the very heart of me.

  His hands filtered through my hair as I took him in and out, and then played my tongue over his tip. “Oh, yes,” he breathed.

  I looked up, expecting his head to have fallen back, but he was still staring at me, his gaze intent watching my motions against his skin. I took him in further, eliciting a gasp of surprise from him and a buzz of power for me. I sucked and sucked, taking him in time and time again until he was hopelessly in my clutches on the bench. His breaths came quicker, his hips moved on their own accord as I bared down, quickening the upward strokes into my mouth as Christian started to crumble in front of me. He tried to push me away as his orgasm rushed ahead, but I held on, soaking him all up as he jerked inside me. I rode his pleasure out until he was lifting me by the arms and laying me by the fountain.

  His hands struggled with my jeans. “I want to bury myself so deep inside you.”

  My hips moved against his until he kissed up my neck and finally, my lips. I pulled him closer, wanting all of him.

  He tore away, his gaze confused. Before I could ask him if something was wrong, he angled his mouth over mine again, but pulled away just as quickly. His blue gray-eyes turned to steel. He reared back, his gaze searching me over, and I followed him. “What?”