Into the Darkness: Reverse Harem (Ravana Clan Vampires Book 2)

by E. M. Moore

  I clasped my fingers around his forearms. “But did your intel tell you it wouldn’t happen?” He didn’t have an answer to that so I just shook my head. “The wrong decision was made, and now there are a bunch of guards at The Fort that were taken unawares.”

  The computer beeped next to us. Christian’s gaze raised, and then he pulled his hands away to smooth my hair down. When he turned around to work on the computer again, I ran my hands through the tangles, trying to make it look as if we hadn’t just woken up.

  Christian sat next to me and logged into a site on the internet. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen in our world. Usually.”

  “Except for lately.” His jaw ticked and I knew I’d hit a nerve with him. I wasn’t trying to tell him his father and The Council weren’t doing a good job, just that they could’ve done an even better job. “I think guards should start making decisions based on vampire safety and security. What harm would it do to put someone like Lex in charge of coordination? She’s lived and breathed guardianship for years. It’s not about taking the role away from The Council, it’s about putting the best person for the job in charge. Isn’t that what being a good leader is about? Not having your hands in every little thing, but knowing when someone else could do it better?”

  His fingers bit into the skin around his elbows as we waited for the group on the other end of the line to pick up. “Samuel wanted lead on this from the beginning. I understood why he made the decisions he did. It was about protecting the trainees from any undue harm. Obviously that is a mission close to my heart.”

  Which didn’t work out, I wanted to add. I couldn’t really fault Samuel. He knew how to train guards to fight, but did he really know about coordinating large groups for attacks? Or to prevent attacks? Did any of us if we’d never had to do it before? “I guess there’s no sense in dwelling on this right now. Let’s just get these people free.”

  “There you are,” a hard, baritone voice said from the speaker of the computer. Christian and I both looked up to find Gregor in the middle of a table flanked by Nicolai, Stephan, and Connor.

  Christian didn’t waste any time getting us up-to-date on what had occurred at The Fort while I’d been with him. There’d been a breech sometime past midnight. First, they rounded up the guards and corralled them in the cafeteria. The condition of the Rajyviks was unknown. Although, since they couldn’t get in contact with the main house, they surmised that they were being held captive as well except we didn’t have access to their security cameras like we did at The Fort. Connor pressed a few buttons on the laptop in front of him and a video feed came up of the inside of the guard building.

  I gasped when I saw the disarray being broadcasted as if I were in a theater watching a horror movie. It was dark, and the screen had a greenish light leading me to believe that some sort of night vision sensors were being used so we could actually see what was going on, meaning that the guards were most likely in pitch black darkness, unable to see what was happening right in front of them. Up front, a body was tied to a chair and being beaten by a tall, slender figure. Off to the right, another perfect form was leaning over a body sprawled out on the floor. As I watched, she lifted her head and wiped her hand across her lips.

  “No,” I said, all the while wondering who the victims were. More than likely I’d raced against them, sparred against them, eaten in the safe cafeteria with them day in and day out. “Why aren’t they fighting back?”

  The picture on the screen switched back to Gregor with a tiny box in the upper right that held the current events at The Fort. “We believe they’re restrained.”

  “Any idea who the rogue clan is?” Christian asked.

  “The only players we’re recording seem to be merely clan members. No sight of any leaders yet,” Nic reported.

  “We need to get in there,” I said, hauling myself to my feet and leaning over the table. “We need every available guard we can get here now to help these people.”

  Underneath the table, Christian rubbed my calf. “Where is Lex?” he asked.

  “Gathering up a group now,” Nic answered. “It’ll take hours before she can get to The Fort though.”

  “Hours?” I asked, my voice high and tight. “They’re already hurting guards. We need to get in there now.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Gregor asked, his eyebrow arching. “There’s no one to send in there.”

  “Me,” I said. “I’ll go in.” My mind started connecting dots and running scenarios the second those words were out of my mouth. I could hear the others still debating the point, but I didn’t care. I knew this was something I had to do. “Listen,” I called out, raising my voice over top of theirs to be heard. “I’m supposed to be there, right? No one will think it’s weird that I just come waltzing into the place. I can bring in weapons, help free others so we can fight back. Where’s T.J.? Have you been able to spot him on the feed?”

  Nicolai glared at me before finally answering. “No, we can’t find him. He’s either hiding or at the Rajyvik’s.”

  “He’s hiding,” I said, vaguely only recognizing my answer as hope instead of real intelligence. “How did you find out about the breech?”

  “One of the emergency alarms was pulled.”

  “That was him.” I didn’t know if I truly knew or if it was a hunch, but if we couldn’t find him on the feed, he was too smart to be corralled in with the rest of the trainees. “If I can find him, we can free the others. How many rogue vamps are there?”

  No one answered me for a few beats. I finally took the time to really look at the others on the screen in front of us. Connor’s hands were gripping the side of the table, Stephan’s eyes were hard as he stared at me, and Nic, though he looked as if he wasn’t happy with the idea of me speaking out, there was a bit of respect in his dark eyes as if he’d thought I’d do nothing less. Gregor raised his chin when my gaze fell on him. “So far, we see ten. Four on the outside, six on the inside.”

  I bit my lip. Ten against one wasn’t very good odds. If I could just get past the four, I could free some of the trainees on the inside and make it more of an even fight though.

  “I’ll go in with her,” Christian said.

  “No,” Gregor and I said at the same time, but I wasn’t sure who sounded more angry. It may have been me. “Not a good idea,” I said, not waiting for Gregor to start ranting. I turned toward him and shook my head.

  Christian cocked his head at me. “You’re really just going to go in by yourself? That’s your grand plan?”

  I lifted my shoulders. “It’s better than waiting hours. If I can’t accomplish anything, what are we losing? I’m not saying don’t amass the other guards and bring them down here, I’m just saying that I can’t sit back and watch what’s happening without doing anything. If I get captured along with the rest of them, what’s the big deal? I should’ve been there anyway.”

  Christian looked back at his father, barely a hint he’d even listened to me. “We need a better plan.”

  Anger surged inside me. I reached over and shut the laptop, disconnecting the feed to his family before whirling on him. “Christian, don’t you even. You know this is the best plan we have right now.”

  His gaze flickered from the laptop to me. “I’m not willing to risk you for the sake of the others. Did you ever think of that?” He rubbed the back of his neck, eyeing me the entire time. “What could happen you ask? How about maybe you could be the one lying on the floor being fed from? Did you think of that?” His voice rose and rose, switching into an almost panicked state. “You’re not going in there. Even if I have to tie you up to keep you here, you’re not going.”

  I switched tactics because fear was practically pulsing out of his eyes. Walking up to him, I reached out for his hand, squeezing my fingers around his, and then placed a soft kiss on his lips. He immediately grabbed me, deepening the kiss. It was brief, but perfect.

  “Don’t,” he said. �
�That’s not fair.”

  I rested my head on his shoulder. “If you don’t let me go, it’s like the Royce and Zeke’s mom tragic story all over again. A vampire who isn’t willing to bend his wishes for the sake of his own kind. You can’t do that, Christian. I know you don’t want me here as your guard, but the simple reality is that’s what I’m here for. You have to let me do the job I was brought here to do. If you stop me now, you’ll just be playing into Checkov’s fears about vampire-guard relationships. If the trainees are taken out, it leaves your father vulnerable in more ways than one. You know we can’t sacrifice that, and you know we can’t give them any more ammunition about guards making vampires go crazy.”

  His hands tightened around my head. A call came into the computer, but we ignored it. “Damnit,” he said, his hands falling to my shoulders. “For once, I don’t want to have to be the one who sacrifices everything. We’re princes. We’ve been sacrificing ourselves for the good of the vampire world since I was brought into it. Is it so wrong that I don’t want to sacrifice you?”

  I pushed him down in his chair and straddled his lap. Tipping his chin up, I stared into his eyes. “You’re talking as if I’m already done for. Don’t think like that. You know I’m good. You know I can do this. I have something these rogue vampires don’t have. That’s something worth fighting for.”

  Christian growled in frustration and then pulled my lips down to his. He kissed me thoroughly, searing the taste, the feel of his lips into mine as if he were branding me as his own. When he pulled away, I was dazed. He lifted me from his lap and set me back on my feet, turning me toward the screen. With his other hand, he opened the laptop and answered the incessant call. He started in as if we hadn’t had a couple minute break, as if he hadn’t just kissed me senseless, as if he hadn’t just had to sacrifice himself again for his people. “If we’re going to send her in, we need a way to communicate with her. Since we have the feed, we’ll be able to see things she can’t.”

  “We can put a mic on her,” Gregor said, his fingers tapping against the table in front of him. “There’s got to be some guard technology in the guard station of that house. Take whatever you need.”

  A walkie talkie crackled on their side. “We’re two hours out. I repeat, two hours out.”

  Christian rose from his chair. “I’ll grab whatever I can find.”

  He turned from the screen, leaving me there with the rest of his family. I stared at each one of them in turn, all had varying degrees of troubled expressions. Nic was the most hopeful, but I could tell from Gregor’s that there was no way he would be agreeing to this plan if there hadn’t been any other choice. Oh well, he was always underestimating me and I’d prove him wrong again. “I need the video feed scoured for any sign of T.J. If I can locate T.J., we’ll have a shot.”

  Connor immediately turned to the laptop. “On it.”

  Stephan leaned forward. “Ariana, find some of that salve in my room. Lather yourself in it. It not only helps with healing, but it also should help prevent injury.”

  I nodded. “Can you text your brother to bring me some of that too?”

  Stephan immediately pulled his phone out and sent a text. My eyes went to Nicolai’s next. He nodded slightly, giving me the only encouragement I needed from him. I was sure there was a lot more he wanted to say, but didn’t want to say it in front of his father.

  Gregor leaned back in his chair, taking my attention away from his sons. “I can’t tell if this is very brave, or very, very stupid of you.”

  I mirrored his casual stance, not giving him an inch. It was about time vampires started taking guards seriously. We weren’t just pawns used for security, we were real people with real intelligence. This was going down, and it would end up with us winning. It had to.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  We were still on the video feed with the Ravanas, but Gregor had left. Christian helped me layer on Stephan’s miracle cure while I searched through the piles of weapons and other gadgets he got me from the guard station. I found something that could be used as a mic, and then found the earpiece shortly after. I showed them to Christian and he smiled immediately. I whipped my shirt off so we could wire me up when I heard four simultaneous intakes of breaths.

  “So, we’re just doing that now?” Nicolai asked.

  I rolled my eyes at him, not bothering to even respond. Things needed to be done and I didn’t have time to mess around with modesty. Christian helped tape the wires to my body before securing the earpiece in place and helping me pull my shirt back on over my head. I grabbed as many stakes as I could and slipped them into my pants. We’d found some nifty stake holders that you attached to your calves to conceal any weapons you had. I needed as many as I could because I knew I’d have to give some stakes up once we freed any guards to help us in the fight.

  “I might have something,” Connor said, his eyes still glued to the laptop screen.

  I strapped a stake in and stood. “What is it?”

  “T.J., maybe. Pulling it up on your screen now.”

  The picture of the boys faded to a corner and another one bloomed bigger on the screen. I watched as a figure slid down a hall, moving stealthily through it and then turning for a door I recognized. “Were all the others in the cafeteria when this happened?” I asked.

  “Yes, this is after they were all herded together.”

  I smiled. “I know where that door leads. It leads to the back of the kitchen where there’s a side door out the back of the building. I’ve been using it to sneak out to see Christian. If he’s back there, I can find him.”

  “So, is that it then?” Nic asked. “We have the plan?”

  I nodded, my muscles tensing now that I had a how to get to the outcome. “Christian will drop me off down the road from The Fort. I’ll sneak over the wall like I’ve been doing. If I run into a vampire, I’ll try to kill them. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just tell them I sneaked out to meet someone. Presumably, they’ll take me into the cafeteria with everyone else. Once there…” I picked up several knifes off the table and slipped them into my pockets, then attached some to the stake holders around my legs. “…I’ll use these to help cut away at the restraints. If I happen to get past every vampire on the outside, I’ll go in the back door and hopefully find T.J..”

  “And if you can’t do any of that?” Nic asked.

  “Then I guess I’ll just be there when the rest of the guards arrive to save the day. Either way, I’ll be there to help.”

  Nicolai, Stephan, and Connor grouped together in the center of the table. Christian immediately moved to my side, placing a hand around my back and squeezing me to him. “Do what you have to do, Princess,” Connor said.

  “Stay safe,” Stephan said, his whole body still tight as if he hadn’t flexed his muscles in hours.

  “Kick some ass, Ri,” Nic said.

  I nodded and then Christian closed the laptop before anyone could say anything else. I was grateful. There was no reason to drag the goodbye out, and plus, every second counted. He used a transmitter and we tested out the wireless mic until it worked. I gave him a thumbs up when I could hear his voice and he gave me his own when he could hear mine. For the time being, we turned it off and he led me to his car. “As soon as I drop you off, I’ll come back here and make sure everyone can hear you so you’ll have eyes on the whole Fort. I figure as long as it takes for you to get to The Fort is as long as it will take me to get back here. Do not go in before you hear from me.”

  He held the car door open and I gave him a quick kiss before getting in the passenger seat. I waited until he got in on the other side before saying, “We’re kind of good at this, aren’t we? Coordinating an attack together...”

  He looked at me doubtfully. “If this is you saying that you want to do this again, I’m going to have to stop you right there. You’re still lucky you’re going.”

  He started the car and pulled away from the house. My mind wandered to the task in front of me. I had my eyes
and ears. I had the skills necessary. I just needed some good luck on my side. To find T.J. would be a blessing. “I hope no one else gets hurt before I have a chance to get there.”

  “You’re so set on being the hero, aren’t you?”

  “It’s not that,” I said quickly. “I just hate to see anyone get hurt. If I can help at all, I’m going to.”

  About a mile and a half away from The Fort, Christian cut the lights and then the engine. He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. He placed his palm on my cheek. “If you—.”

  “I won’t,” I said, promising him. “I’ll be fine.”

  He squeezed my hand and then motioned for me to turn my mic on. I quickly got out of the car and started walking down the street, again, not wanting to prolong the goodbyes. I told myself I’d see them again soon and besides, there were other things to worry about. I shouldn’t be kept safe while there were others like me suffering, in fear and in harm’s way. That had never been my thing. Even when I lived on the streets, I couldn’t stand to see others suffer. Now that I was in a position to actually do something about it, I wasn’t going to let it happen.

  “You hear me?” Christian’s voice came over the earpiece surprisingly clear.

  “Yeah, I got you.”

  “Forever,” he said.

  I smiled at that and then ran until The Fort came into view. All the while, Christian and I gave one another updates. He was just parking the car in the driveway now and was headed back to the conference room to get everyone else wired up so they could hear me. I stayed close to the stone wall, searching in the dark for my spot on the wall where I could grab the tree limb and jump down.

  “Almost there,” Christian said. “Turning on the laptop now.” I heard a few press of buttons before he was saying. “Okay…anytime now. Location?”

  “Near the wall. Searching for my getaway tree.”

  Other voices entered the conversation next and Christian silenced them with a shh. “I’ve got Ariana here. Let her concentrate.”