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

by E. M. Moore

The stern, hard voice rang out in my ear. “Take him alive.”

  Before I could say anything, T.J. jumped into motion. The rogue vampire hissed, throwing his stake in the direction of the terrified group. Samuel called out, his arm raising, outstretched and grasping as if he could’ve done something from his position.

  I lunged forward. Instead of flipping end over end, the stake spiraled like a football, making it much faster. Still, I threw myself forward, unable to even think that the stake could hit one of the innocents in the corner of the room. Pain radiated through my entire body. I cried out and again I had all the voices in my ear. There was Nic’s angry tenor, Stephan’s solemn gasp, and Connor’s rapid-fire questions. The world in front of me faded out until there was just the shooting pain in my chest, and the chatter in my ear. I tried to concentrate on their voices so I wouldn’t slip away and lose myself, but no matter how hard I tried, it happened anyway.

  The pain subsided into a numbness. The rushed voices slowed until they slurred and just stopped. Then, there was nothing.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I woke to a dull pain in my shoulder. I was in the Rajyvik house, the same one I remembered being in when I gave the princes the slip to run away from them. Even now, I cringed when I thought of that. What I wouldn’t give to have them next to me now. I called out for them, reaching for the earpiece in my ear to find it gone. Instead, strong hands wrapped around my shoulders. I blinked up, my vision swimming into view when I saw the most perfect pair of blue gray eyes.

  I breathed out, suddenly relaxing. He moved the hair away from my face. “You’re okay. The stake hit you in the shoulder. I brought some of Stephan’s cream and you’ll be as good as new soon.”

  God, he was beautiful. The blond highlights in his dirty blond hair were made even brighter by the lights in the room. His sharpened features were twisted into concentration, but not his usual face. He was caught somewhere between being relieved and upset.

  Another pair of eyes peered down at me. This was Alex and I almost laughed at the thought of Alex Short from Turning Stone being around while I came to from an injury. We so weren’t in the human world. “She’s awake,” he called out over his shoulder.

  T.J. came over, nearly knocking Christian out of the way who sent him a scathing glare, not that the guard noticed. A huge grin smiled down at me. “You were amazing, Ariana. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  I highly doubted that, but the praise made me feel good anyway.

  “You saved us,” Alex said. “That stake was heading right for Natalie.”

  I tried to sit up and winced as Christian’s fingers dug into me. I found his gaze and he sent me a quick shake of his head. I settled back down between his legs. “The others?”

  “Samuel and his father are okay,” Christian explained, and I nodded, now understanding who the other vampire was in the room. The rogue vamp must not have hurt him as bad as I originally thought.

  “And the trainees?”

  “Five casualties total,” T.J. answered. “All the rogue vamps are gone except for Dumont’s lackey.”

  “Dumont,” Christian swore with a quick shake of his head.

  My eyes rounded. Now that we weren’t in the thick of battle, I recognized that name. That was the name of the vampires who lead before the Ravanas did. The ones the Ravanas overthrew. “I guess we know who the enemy is now.”

  Lex strode into the room and everyone surrounding me but Christian left. He passed a hand through my hair. “They’re coming. They left as soon as they got the all clear.” I opened my mouth to ask a question, but Christian beat me to it. “They know you’re okay.”

  I smiled up at him. “Do you think I can move?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

  “Okay. Then is there a reason why I’m still laying here?”

  He leaned over, his breath teasing the skin on my cheek. “I wasn’t ready to give you up yet and if that guard doesn’t leave you alone, I might have to break him.”

  I lifted my hand and placed it over one of his on my shoulder. “Help me up.”

  He did as I asked and I got to my feet. He held his hand around my waist and helped me over to the group standing in front of Lex. She rattled off the list of the five casualties and even though I recognized the names, I wasn’t close with any of them. Still, my heart hurt for them and their families. They were at school, at training, a place where you would think you would be safe, and they weren’t. A tug of guilt spread into my conscience. If I’d spoken up more… If I’d made them listen…

  Lex nodded at me as she continued to speak. “Thanks to T.J. and Ariana, we have one prisoner. Currently he’s bound and tied with UV light cuffs. When Ravana gets here, we’ll figure out what to do with him after we interrogate.”

  Samuel stood a little away from the group. His chin was lowered and he didn’t have the confident stance that always came so easily to him. “I’ll have to call the deceased trainees’ families.”

  His father, who now had a large white scar across his neck clapped him on the back.

  I swallowed. Now that we were done here, I wanted nothing more than to be out again. I listened in as the rest of the group talked about plans upon plans and the minutes ticked by. Eventually, I slumped against Christian, exhaustion finally taking over. He held me close to his body and started for the front door. “I’m taking Ariana to her room.”

  “I’ll do that,” T.J. said.

  I froze, grasping the front of Christian’s shirt, the same shirt I’d taken off him earlier that evening. Lex butted in. “I’m going to need you here, T.J. I’ll debrief Ariana tomorrow.”

  Freed, I limped next to Christian as he walked me back toward the guard building. The sun was just waking up over the trees and Christian grimaced as the rays hit him. “I can make it there myself,” I told him.

  In response, he only held me closer.

  The closer we got to the guard building, the more my body rebelled against the idea of going there. A group of female guards sat huddled together just outside, their faces and bodies still holding the shock of the night’s events. “Do you think they’ll be okay?” I asked Christian.

  “Eventually,” he said, his voice soft, comforting. “The worst thing about today is the shock of it all. It will reverberate throughout the whole of the vampire world. A direct attack on a Council-led facility. A direct attack on our safety measures. No one thought it would happen. It’s like the first time the terrorists aimed everything at the U.S.. Remember that? That shock, that indignation that echoed all over the world because everyone thought the U.S. was untouchable? That’s what’s happening here right now. It’s like frozen fear in the center of our hearts. We’re not all as safe as we were leading ourselves to believe.”

  I closed my eyes, taking in everything Christian said. I understood that well enough. There wasn’t a person old enough to remember 9/11 in the human world who couldn’t tell you exactly what they were doing, exactly where they were when the terrorists attacked us. This act would be felt here for a long time. In a guard sense though, I could see this as a wake-up call for the vampires. Not that I wanted any lives lost for them to learn this lesson, but maybe someday, it would help us.

  Vampires weren’t indestructible. Their way of life was fragile. It wasn’t just the individual vampires who should be scared for their own safety or for the safety of their own families, they should be worried for the safety of all their kind. Rogue vampires attacked humans, waking some humans up to the existence of their kind. Then, in the very next act, they hit right at the heart of the vampire society. Whoever was doing this knew exactly what they were doing. He was hitting them from all corners. He was tearing the Ravanas down. First rule of a friendly coup, make everyone feel like they aren’t safe anymore. That was exactly what Dumont did. I knew from the Ravanas’ history books that having the Dumont’s back in power would mean nothing but bad. “You know that guy?” I asked. “Dumont? He’s the one I saw in the basement that night Zeke
’s mom took me.”

  Christian’s perfect gait stumbled. “You’re sure?” His fingers gripped me tighter.

  “Positive. I recognized his accent.”

  He leaned his head down on mine briefly. When we made our way through the building, guards were still scowering the place. I peeked into the common room to find more trainees huddled together. Beyond that room still held the disrepair of the cafeteria. Beyond the glass doors were bodies pulled into the middle of the floor, guard-issued white sheets pulled over top of them. The dead rogue vampires didn’t get any such treatment. They laid there on the floor, their faces staring blankly up at the ceiling.

  Christian steered me away. Shannon, Liv, Evan, and some others including Zeke were in the common room. Some of them were bloody. All of them looked like they’d been through a hell of a fight, but they were okay. Christian forced my feet toward my hallway. When we got to my door, he bent down to retrieve my key tied in my shoelace before opening the door for me. He closed the door behind us and then helped me to the bed. I laid down, snuggling into the sheets as Christian sat next to me. He pulled the jar of Stephan’s awesome curing cream from his pocket and put it on the dresser on the other side of the room. “When you wake up, I want you to put some more of that on you.”

  Panic seized me. “You’re not staying?”

  His hands flittered across my forehead. “I will until you fall asleep.”

  I nodded, my eyelids already drooping closed. Christian’s soft lips touched my cheek. “Good night, my love.”

  * * * * *

  Some time later, my eyes started to open. Voices spoke quietly all around me and I decided to keep my eyes shut while I listened, all the while my heart pounding in my chest, happy to have them all around me once more. “I think it’s my turn,” came a voice. Connor. I stopped a smile from slipping onto my face.

  “You just had your turn,” Stephan said. “If anything, it’s mine.”

  “Too bad I’m not done,” the gruff voice said. His arms tightened around me and this time, I couldn’t help the smile from overtaking my face.

  “Looks like we’ll be able to ask her ourselves. She’s awake.”

  I opened my eyes to Christian peering at me from the foot of the bed. Nicolai’s arms pulled away from me only to stroke my cheek. Somehow, he was behind me and my head was in his lap. I had no idea how they’d been able to accomplish that without waking me up.

  Stephan rose from his chair and came toward the bed. “How are you feeling?” He had the salve in his hand, his green eyes sparking with relief.

  “Okay,” I said, a little groggy. I took stock of my body and besides the dull ache in my shoulder, the pain I’d felt in my cheek and the claw marks I’d received on my neck were all gone, or at least, didn’t hurt at the moment.

  “For the record, she said that after she was kidnapped too.” Nic’s snarky comment had me reaching up, tickling his thighs. He squirmed on the bed. “Hey! Cut that out.”

  “Don’t be mean to me, I just woke up.”

  “I wasn’t being mean,” he said, “I was merely only pointing out the flaws in asking you if you were okay.”

  “I am,” I said, sitting up, and finally looking at all of them in the eye. “I would’ve been really alright if that last vampire hadn’t faked dead.”

  “Yeah, T.J. told us,” Nic said. He looked at the rest of his brothers and they all looked uncomfortable for a moment.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, noting the color rising in each of their cheeks and the way they avoided eye contact with me.

  They all looked at Nic to answer so I looked over my shoulder at him.

  “Well?”

  “I punched him,” he grumbled.

  My jaw dropped. “You did what?”

  “To be fair, it was T.J.’s fault,” Christian said.

  Connor snickered. I looked at him straight in the eye, knowing if I was going to get anyone to talk, it would be him. “What did he do?”

  Connor gave in immediately. “We were at a debriefing meeting and T.J. kept talking about how awesome you were. I mean, he was really laying it on thick. It didn’t take anyone with half a brain to realize he likes you.” I scoffed at that, but Connor shot me a look. “It’s true. Anyway,” he said, drawing the word out. “He kept going and going and then when it was just us there with him, he started making other comments. Things guys might say to each other.”

  “And?” I said.

  “Well,” Connor laughed. “Nicolai told him we didn’t want our future guard dating anyone. He told him we’d prefer it if you concentrated on the task ahead of you.”

  Nicolai’s arms tightened around me. I knew why he said it. To throw T.J. off the scent without throwing us all under the bus.

  “Then, T.J. told Nic to go to hell.”

  No. I gasped, knowing this wouldn’t end well.

  “Yeah, so my fist told him to go to hell.”

  I shook my head and clamped my lips together. It was of no use though. It was kind of funny. Poor T.J.. Even Stephan had mirth in his eyes as Connor recounted the story.

  “Only thing is, I think I made it worse,” Nicolai said, his face hardening.

  I patted his hand that was wrapped around my stomach. “I can handle T.J. You didn’t have to punch him.”

  Nic shrugged and the rest of them started talking easily about what had happened while I was out. They’d attended the meetings they were required to, but they returned to me afterward. No one said anything to them, and in fact, Gregor had already made a motion to reinstate the old guard-vampire ruling due to the actions of the guards who had saved the lives of vampires. Nothing had come from it yet, and who knew if anything would, but at least that was a step in the right direction.

  “Any word from Dumont or any of the other rogues?”

  “In hiding,” Christian said. “They probably won’t show themselves for a while. T.J., Lex, and a few others raided their homebase from the information Soren gave us.”

  “Soren?”

  Nic’s fingers traced the wound on my shoulder. “That vampire.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “Dumont wasn’t there. Unsurprisingly. They were able to take the others hostage that were left there though.”

  I settled back into Nicolai’s arms. At the moment, everything was okay. We didn’t have Dumont, but we had some hostages to give us leads. They would be weak now so the rogue clan would have to fall back and start planning again. If they really were trying to overthrow the Ravanas, they’d need numbers, and time.

  “By the way,” Nic said. “Lex says thank you.”

  My brow furrowed. “Why?”

  “Dad made her head of this mission. She’s calling the shots on what to do with Dumont and the rest of the rogues.”

  I looked up into Christian’s eyes. A knowing glint smiled back at me. He must’ve told his father my idea, and Gregor had actually listened. That was something. That was for sure a start in the best direction. “Wow.”

  “We know. Dad used his executive order to do it too. The Council might not like it, but they have to agree to it. At least until the next Council meeting.”

  And if they were smart, they would let someone more than capable call the shots.

  A surge of hope spurred inside me. I reached out my hand to Christian who entwined his fingers with mine. Nicolai’s chin rested on my shoulder while Stephan reached out to touch my cheek. Behind him, Connor made his way over to me, knelt on the floor and then laid his head down on my legs. I sighed, relief stretching its way over me to have us all in the same room together again. Though there were other problems out there, they seemed so far away at the moment. I’d helped save lives. The guards were being trusted more. Though we were targeted, we also persevered.

  And my princes? Well, my princes were with me. Forever and always.

  The End

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Thank you so much for continuing to read Ariana’s story! This concludes Into the Darkness! The first
serial of Falling For Darkness will be out soon. If you don’t want to miss it, “Follow” my author page on Amazon and you will be notified of all my new releases.

  Books by E. M. Moore

  Chronicles of Cas Series

  Reawakened

  Hidden

  Power

  Severed

  The Adams’ Witch

  Bound In Blood

  Cursed In Love

  Adams’ Witch Spinoff Series, Order of the Akasha

  Novella Starter — Stripped

  Phoenix Series

  Flight of the Phoenix available in the CREATURES box set!

  Witchy Librarian Cozy Mystery Series

  Wicked Witchcraft

  One Wicked Sister

  Wicked Cool