by Moore, E. M.
“Lex says she’d like to get your opinion on a call they got today. It’s some information from an old friend of Dumont’s.”
“We have all the information on Dumont we need. We have his location. We know who he has. We know what’s happening…”
Stephan propped his head up on his elbow. “We don’t know what’s happening. Maybe Nic’s plan is working, and our barging in will just tip Dumont off.”
“Nicolai waltzing in there by himself should be reason enough. What excuse did he give him? How would he have found him if he didn’t have any help—our help?”
It was amazing the realizations you had after someone else made such an important decision for you. After Nic hung up on me, and I’d decided to make the best out of a bad situation, reality smacked me in the face. There were so many factors. What did Nic tell him about how he’d found him there? What excuse could he have given him that would’ve possibly worked? The longer time went on, the stupider Nicolai’s decision turned out to be. When—if—he got back, he wasn’t allowed to decide anything again. He’d revoked those privileges with this senseless stunt.
“I’m sure Nic thought of all that. He wouldn’t just walk in there without a plan.”
I looked at Stephan doubtfully. Didn’t we always call him brash? Didn’t all his brothers just call him selfish and uncaring when he’d ‘marked’ me? But no, all of a sudden, he put his own life at risk, and they were all on his side. Even Gregor agreed with Lex’s decision not to send anyone after him. I’d been in the minority.
It all just made me want to scream. For as long as my breath would hold, I tried to let all the fear and all the worry out again. Hope had become a commodity I wasn’t privy to. Fear and uncertainty had done all they could to take over, to make me feel like I had for the last several years before I was brought here and shown what living life was truly like. I was once again a bystander with nothing to do but wait and see how the world played out around me. I had no control over what happened to Nicolai. I had no insight on what fate was befalling him at this very moment. He could be on his way back to the estate with Dumont right now, or he could be dead.
Dead.
My throat constricted, and I closed my eyes to fight back the burn on the other side. This was why I couldn’t be left to do nothing. My thoughts wandered into territory that was hard to come back from.
Stephan sighed. “I know where your mind just went. It’s not happening. We would feel it.”
“So now you’re a mind-reader like your mother? Did you help him leave too?”
“Don’t be mad at her.”
“Don’t be mad at her?” I growled, the warring emotions in my head not knowing what to say or do. Rationally, I knew I’d do what Isabelle had done if I could, though I would’ve preferred to be right there with him. Irrationally, a very significant part of my brain was so mad she’d sent him on his own to take Dumont that I couldn’t reconcile the other fact. No matter how many times she said it would work out, I didn’t believe her. That hadn’t always been my truth. In my world, things just didn’t work out. Sometimes they went to shit, and you had to crawl on your hands and knees to pull yourself up. And even worse, sometimes even when you did all the dirty work, even when your knees were scraped and bruised, and you were tired and weary from working too much, even then, things didn’t work out the way they should. Sometimes this world could be cruel. Things didn’t happen to work out just because you willed them to. Fate had a mind of its own, and let’s face it, sometimes fate was a bitch with combat boots that would squish you just for falling off the beaten path.
Stephan pulled me toward him, his hands sifting through my hair, his breath barely a whisper on my skin. “You’re doing all the things you tell us not to do, Ariana. I know you can’t help it. I know there’s nothing out there that can take away your worry, or anyone else’s, but we all have to be strong right now. For Nicolai’s sake. We have to trust that what he did was the right thing. Isabelle does, and even being as factually inclined like I am, I never bet against her. I like science and cold, hard realities, but with Isabelle, you just have to go with it.”
“This coming from one of the persons who were so pissed when she agreed to take you guys away from me after the vamp-guard ruling.”
Stephan’s muscles tightened. He drew me closer to him, his leg curling around mine. He stayed silent. He didn’t utter a word because he knew I was right. I guessed that’s what the difference was. When your loved ones were involved, you weren’t rational. That’s why you’d risk your life and die for them—even if you were a vampire and had the self-preservation instinct of a chameleon, it was a whole different ball game when one started talking about love and loss.
I clutched Stephan’s shirt and brought him closer. “I’m sorry.” He started to shake his head, but I pulled him that much closer. It wasn’t his fault—or Isabelle’s—for my terrible mood. They didn’t deserve any of my sarcasm or my harsh judgments. We were all just doing what we thought was right. For me? I guessed that was wallowing in my bedroom and calling Nicolai’s cell every quarter of an hour. For Stephan, he was still looking up his medical books in the library trying to learn anything he could about saving Matthews who still lay in the infirmary back at The Fort. Christian hadn’t left the Council room, the hub of activity where decisions were being made. Connor? Well, he was more like me. He still worked down in the Council room from time-to-time, but after not getting a lock on Nic’s cell phone when we needed it, he shortened his duty hours. And honestly, we’d pretty much secured all the techy information we needed from him, and there was nothing left to do but wait. “I guess I get irrationally angry when something happens to one of you. You’re my Achilles heel. All of you. All I want is for you all to be around me all the time, or at the very least, for me to know that you’re okay all the time. That your lives aren’t in danger, and that you’re still breathing.”
“That would help, wouldn’t it?” Stephan asked.
Just the fact that he took my tirade at face value pleased me. “Yes, it would.” I’d meant all that, and I was glad he didn’t just push it under the rug. What I’d learned from these past two days was that I just needed a few bare necessities to live life and carry on. One of those things was knowing that my princes were still alive. It seemed like so basic of a wish, and on some level, I knew that not everyone in this world had to worry about something that should be a given, but this was the life I’d chosen. The life I wanted more than anything. But that life involved having four princes surrounding me.
Doubt. Fear. A never-ending spiral of grief I wasn’t sure was even warranted. I’d left all rational thought behind and ended up in the crazy house imprisonment of my brain.
Stephan chuckled, bringing me out of my reverie. “Well, I can see I’ve done nothing to help. This is why we left this up to Connor.”
I smiled, my lips moving against the softness of his shirt. “You’re helping,” I told him, even though I wasn’t sure I was being honest or not. “You’re here.” That was true and was a definite comfort.
“Do you think you’re up to heading to The Council chambers to talk to Lex about Dumont’s old friend who called?”
I snuggled into him closer. “Do I have to?”
“Of course not.”
Even as he answered, I knew I hadn’t been fair. Out of all of them, Stephan would let me get away with murder. Well, maybe not murder. His medical instincts might just kick in then, but he would let me lie here and call Nicolai every two minutes if I wanted to. He was too sweet to tell me to do something else. Too sweet to give me a kick in the ass and tell me I was being childish. Gregor and Lex had to make decisions based on the good of everyone who followed the Ravana Clan. They didn’t make decisions based on what was good for them, for their families, and least of all, me. I was just being selfish…and bratty. I could own up to it, but that didn’t mean I had to do anything to change it.
“Soren’s been asking for you too.”
I shr
ugged. “Nothing I can do about that. We’re here, and he’s at The Fort.”
“We’re actually thinking about transferring him. If something is going to happen, we might want him close.”
“So transfer him.”
Stephan tipped my chin up. “Just like that? You don’t want to think about it? What if he escaped?”
I shook my head, barely noticing Stephan’s confusion. “He’s not going to escape. He doesn’t follow Dumont anymore.”
“I agree with you on that, but who would rather be a captive than be free?”
My shoulders slumped. I peered up at Stephan’s big, green eyes and sighed. He was tricky that one. He knew what he was doing, and I kind of hated him right now for it. I’d just made that decision based on not caring, which was so unlike me. My mind was too preoccupied with Nic right now. I groaned. “You’re right…” Things needed to be thought through, rationally. I needed to pull myself together.
His soft lips landed on my forehead. I breathed in, internalizing the moment his lips met mine. These instances were precious, and not something to be taken lightly. Who knew when I’d have a chance like this again with Nicolai? What if I never had a chance like this again with Nic? All I had were memories, and those memories had to be enough to last me a lifetime.
“I love you, Stephan.” I pulled away and kissed his lips, enjoying the way he fell into sync with me like we were one person on one mission with one thought. When I pulled my lips from his, I bit down on my cheek. “Don’t think I don’t know what you did there. You’re supposed to be the nice one, too.”
He smirked. “I am the nice one.”
“I don’t know. You might have to give that crown up.”
“Yeah? Who would you give it to?” His eyebrows arched and he looked at me, challenging.
It only took me a beat to realize that though the other ones were nice at times, Stephan really was the epitome of kind. He didn’t have a successor, and he knew it. “That doesn’t mean you still can’t be evil, apparently.”
“By making you see that you’re wrong?”
“Yes, that’s an evil thing to do, Stephan. I was just laying here minding my own business, and then you come in with rational…thought. It’s not fair. It was mean, and uncalled for.”
He chuckled into our shared pillow, hiding his stunning eyes from me for a brief moment. He stared at me for a long while after that, and then shook his head. “We need your help, Ariana. All of us. I think a preoccupied mind would do you a world of good right now.”
My mouth dropped open a little as realization struck me. Stephan had literally just ‘treated’ me. That’s why it had come out of nowhere because I didn’t expect it. Nothing was physically wrong with me. That I would expect him to take care of right away, but something was mentally wrong with me, and he’d just waltzed in here and diagnosed and treated me like he would have with a regular injury. Sneaky, sneaky. I’d have to keep an eye on him from now on if he was going to start pulling that stuff.
He shifted on the bed and brought me to a sitting position with him. “Come on, let’s go do something productive.”
He placed his hand on my hips and pushed until I was on my feet. My phone fell to the floor. At the exact same time it hit, it started to ring. At first, I thought it was just a tech malfunction, but then it played the digital jingle again. In that moment, I froze. The phone was faced down against the carpet. Turning the phone over to see the screen felt like it would reveal my destiny and that was just too big of a step for me at the moment. The princes knew not to call me right now, so I could rule them out, and there really wasn’t anyone else who called me except for maybe T.J. and Lex.
I looked at Stephan, and Stephan stared back at me. I didn’t move. Neither did he. I knew he could’ve bent over at the waist and had the phone in front of me within a fraction of a second with his superior quickness, but we were both frozen in time, stuck like gum on the other side of a shoe.
Then, we both moved at once. I dropped to snatch it up, but Stephan beat me of course. I had just enough time to briefly glance at the screen before he pushed the pickup button.
Dark, Sexy, & Badass.
My breath lodged in my throat. This could be every hope come true, or every fear. This was a defining moment. One I would remember for the rest of my life.
23
“Hello?” Stephan said into the receiver.
His eyes closed. It felt like forever until the first bit of news hit me, until the realization set in that it was actually Nic on the other side of the line instead of Dumont claiming his victory over us. Stephan breathed out and relaxed all at once before bringing my phone down and putting the call on speaker.
“—in the backseat, knocked out cold.”
“Nic?”
“Ri.” I could hear his smile through the miles that separated us, and my heart lifted in my chest. The anger, the hurt, the angst rushed out of me all at once and nothing mattered but the fact that he was talking to me right now. That he must have been alive and unhurt because his voice was as natural as it could be. It was as if he was calling from his room down the hall rather than Georgia. For several seconds, he didn’t say anything, but the realization of the situation returned.
“Are you okay?”
“Barely,” he said. “I’m not hurt, but I’ve got a tail. Quick, loyal bastards. That’s not all.” He heaved a sigh, then a pounding sounded as if he’d hit his hand on the steering wheel several times. “It’s worse than we thought. Dumont doesn’t just have a few followers. He has several hundred. He has a freaking community of human blood suckers. He’s made them all throughout the centuries, and then he’s won a clan or two over who used to support us who now support them, and they’ve grown. It’s not just a small contingent that wants to take over The Council, it’s not just Dumont himself, it’s a whole other world. They rival us in numbers, and when I say us, I don’t mean just the Council family clans and the other predominant clans, I mean us, as in people who use blood banks for food.”
“That’s not possible,” Stephan said, his brows furrowing. “They wouldn’t be able to keep secret. There’s no way.”
“I’m telling you,” Nic said, his voice hard. “I know what I saw. I know what I heard. I don’t know how else to say this, but there’s no way we’re defeating this guy. His people won’t stop. They honor him like he’s a God damned deity, Stephan. I’m not even sure how I got out of there. In fact, I’m almost sure they let me go. Maybe this was Dumont’s plan all along. Who the hell knows? But I’m heading back to the estate. I’ve got Dumont, and we need to make about a thousand decisions before I get there. I know Father wants to put him on trial and make him pay for his sins to us, but I’m telling you, that’s not going to work. We’ll have several hundred, if not thousands, of people banging on our doorstep. It’s like he’s been nurturing a cult. His reaches go further into society than you even want to know. It’s not just a ‘kill him and everything will smooth out afterward’ moment. It’s far more fucked up than that.”
I closed my eyes, listening to Nic as he spoke about the impossible. Part of me just wanted to rejoice in the fact that he was okay. He was alive—well, as much as he was ever alive—and breathing. He had Dumont. That’s what he had set out to do. But at the same time, I was reeling. When was anything going to play out like we thought it would? It seemed like the world was constantly changing around me and nothing was set in stone. It was always turning, twisting, like a kaleidoscope with new colors and patterns always emerging, some more screwed up than the others.
“You have to tell Father all this,” Stephan said.
“I know. I just wanted to make sure Ri didn’t hate me.”
Stephan grinned at me over the phone. “The complete opposite, actually. She hasn’t stopped moping since you hung up on her.”
“I don’t know if I would call it moping,” I said, sending Stephan a dirty look.
“It was moping.”
“You’re a traitor.” I
scowled at him, which only made him smile more. “In any case,” I continued. “Gregor’s not going to like this. He’s out for blood, and I can’t say that I blame him. Dumont’s been behind everything from the beginning. Capturing me, the attack on The Estate and The Fort, the bomb… Who knows what else he’s done, and what else he’s planned?”
“I think the correct question is what else he’s capable of,” Nic stated. “Can you guys get Dad on the phone? Alone? I don’t care if the family’s there, but I’d like to tell him this in private so he has a chance to think things over before he updates everyone else.”
Stephan and I made our way downstairs, Nicolai still on speaker phone, to the Council room. Stephan immediately pulled Gregor, Christian, and Connor aside. I didn’t bother following them. I already knew what Nic was going to say, and I was pretty sure I could gauge Gregor’s reaction. Relief at hearing Nicolai’s voice, then outright fury at what he had to say. But like all good leaders, he would come around. He would realize what was best for everyone and at least entertain what Nic was telling him before decisions could be made.
I watched them retreat through the back door and then turned around to find Lex staring at me. I walked up to her, a little ashamed at keeping my distance from the actual following through of the plans that I suggested. It wasn’t smart, or brave of me. I’d showed my cowardice when it came to thinking I was going to lose Nic and here I was coming back with the proverbial tail between my legs.
“Nice to see you here,” she said, nodding once at me.
“Sorry,” I told her, already shaking my head. “I know I haven’t been the best guardian, and—”
Lex held her hand up. “We all have to be human sometime.”
“I guess everything just caught up with me, but it’s still no excuse. I should’ve been down here.” Lex wasn’t even listening anymore. She shuffled papers around on the desk in front of her and then pulled out a phone transcript. “What’s this?” I asked after she handed it to me.