by Moore, E. M.
“Something of interest, I think. Since all this was your idea, I thought you might want to take a look at it. It gives a little behind-the-scenes idea on why Dumont is doing all this from someone who claims he knows.”
I took the paper from her and read through the transcript complete with the volunteer’s responses who’d answered the phone from this room. In it, the vampire tells the operator that Dumont tried to get him to change his allegiance from the Ravana Clan to the Dumont Clan ages ago. He tells the story about why Dumont feels the Ravanas shouldn’t be in charge, making it seem like it was Dumont who was the martyr. It was Dumont who’d been cast out of society unlawfully and without honor.
Within the story itself, the caller weaved the idea of honor and pride in and out. Honor was an attribute I wouldn’t have said Dumont possessed. He’d tried to have me killed along with the Ravanas. He used others to carry out his plans. He wasn’t honorable. Far from it. But I guessed when you fought for something, you believed strongly about it. Even those who did the worst things in history thought they were doing what was best for their people, their world. If the vampires under Dumont didn’t find at least something about him worthy, no one would follow him. According to Nicolai, he’d even been able to get others to change sides. He must’ve said something worthy of hearing if he was able to do that.
“Honorable Dumont, huh?” I asked, my brows rising.
Lex shrugged. “I thought it was interesting. Almost like a motive in a murder case. You don’t always agree with it, but it’s the reason that makes people do things.”
“I guess I just have a hard time believing that someone so evil thought that the takeover by the Ravana Clan was a dishonorable thing. How about trying not to be a jerk? It’s not like it’s that hard.”
Lex smirked. “You sound like Nic.”
My muscles tensed. With Gregor talking to him right now, they didn’t need me spilling the beans about Nic actually having Dumont, and that he was being trailed closely. Then again, Gregor might make the decision for us to go out there and bring Nic and Dumont back in. Confront the enemy before they even made it back to the estate. There were so many things up in the air right now. Like Nic said, we had to make about a thousand different decisions before Nic got here with Dumont. He was enemy number one, and it wasn’t just Gregor who would have a hard time calming down. I didn’t even know how I would react the first time I saw him.
I shrugged, going for nonchalance. “I hear Soren’s been asking for me. Stephan said something about maybe transferring him here. Is that happening?”
“I think we should,” Lex said. “He’s not doing us any good at The Fort right now since we moved our headquarters here.”
“Makes sense.” Plus, what Lex didn’t know was that it was a very real possibility Dumont was going to be imprisoned here soon too. Having both of them in the cells might make it interesting.
The back door burst open and a stricken, honey-colored head searched the room. When Connor locked gazes with me, a tremor rattled my body. “Come.” He looked at Lex. “You, too. Now.”
Lex started out at a normal gait toward the back door, but I pushed past her, my feet eating up the floor between being in the dark and what made Connor look like that. Connor held the door open for us, and we both rushed forward, Lex picking up the pace now since she saw my reaction. He waved us further into the dark hallway and then took a right through a doorway I hadn’t noticed the only other time I’d been in this hall. All of us spilled out into the family room through a hidden door.
Gregor paced in the middle, my phone clutched in his hand.
“What is it?” Lex asked. “What happened?”
Gregor stopped, turned toward us, and inclined his head. “Nicolai has Dumont.”
Lex gasped, a smile curving her lips. “That’s great.”
Gregor held up a hand. “Dumont also has Nicolai.”
My gaze narrowed as I stared down Nic’s father. What did he mean by that? Last I heard Nicolai was just bringing him up-to-date so we would have things in place when he got here. Now what was going on?
Stephan moved toward me, which immediately made my hackles go up. Something else had happened.
Finding his father mute, Christian stepped forward. “Although Nic got Dumont, he also has a trail of dedicated, annoyed, angry Dumont followers on his heels. There are too many to fight, and we don’t want to risk relinquishing Dumont now that we finally have him.”
“I’ll get a team together. We can leave within a half hour,” Lex said, her voice rising.
Her hand fluttered for the cell phone she always kept in her pocket, but Gregor moved forward. “That won’t work. The careless stunt my son has pulled off has also gained us some insight into Dumont. He has far more followers, and a bigger reach than we expected, or dare I say, even thought to consider. We must change our tactics. It is no longer possible to try Dumont through our usual methods. He has made it impossible for his mission to fail. Unfortunately, we need him alive in order to calm his people. Killing him would do nothing but entice them to throw everything they have at us, and since he’s been plotting his revenge for some time longer than we even knew he was still around, I think it best if we get him here, and he and I can sit down in a civilized manner to discuss things.”
“Sir…” Lex started. “You’re not actually thinking of letting his behavior go unchecked, are you? A truce of some sort? That’ll be why his people won’t quiet. We should use brute force to squash them.”
Gregor’s lips thinned. “I refuse to behave like those we shook off this pedestal. I have worked hard and long to live peacefully, and I will not live like Dumont just to defeat him. Nor will I risk our guards in what will sure be a fight to end all fights. There has to be another way.”
Lex’s jaw clenched. I looked back and forth between the two while they stared one another down. I could see both points. Gregor would stick to his wishes, though. First it would be brute force to rid the world of Dumont and anyone who wanted to avenge him, but how would others perceive that? Would they see the Ravanas acting that way and remember who it was they threw from the throne centuries ago? It would go against everything Ravana believed in to fight amongst his own species. And that didn’t even bring into account the fact that Nic said they rivaled us in numbers. The chances of winning such a war were slim, and as he said, put all of us in jeopardy.
Interrupting their stare down, I said, “I guess the bigger question at the moment is how do we get Nic here faster to give Gregor and Dumont more time to talk without his hoard of angry followers? He’s in a car, and they’re not far behind. To ensure his safety, we need to see about getting him here quicker than driving. Can anyone fly? Does anyone have a plane at their disposal?”
“Pavone”, Connor and Stephan said at the same time. Stephan eyed me warily, and although I recognized the name, and why I recognized it, having him help wouldn’t bother me. I’d thought his tastes were vile, but now that I’d experienced the same thing, they weren’t as heinous as I imagined. Not that I wanted to be in that situation with him again, with Zeke telling him I loved being fed off of for sexual purposes.
Lex pointed at Stephan. “Get him on the phone. Tell him we need him at the airport as soon as he can.” She looked at Connor. “Start researching small air fields or places to land a plane between here and your brother’s last known position.”
The people in the room scattered. Gregor walked forward, handing me back my cell. He looked around the room briefly, finding Stephan talking quickly into his phone the only other person left in the room besides us. “If you’ll excuse me, Ariana, I have to go tell my wife the news we’ve just heard.”
I nodded, and he left. As soon as the door closed behind him, Stephan’s hands wound around my middle from behind, and he pulled me back to him. I laid my head back against his shoulder. “Did Nic say anything else when I wasn’t here?”
Stephan kissed my cheek, his lips lingering. “No. He just reiterated that he tho
ught it may have been a little too easy to get to Dumont, like he wants to be in our custody for some reason. Father thinks that sitting down and discussing things with him like men, like world leaders, might do some good.” He sighed. “Maybe they’ll come to some sort of compromise. Then again, maybe that’s just me and my wishful thinking. I hate to see anyone get hurt. Not our people.” He squeezed me tight to him. “And not those who are following him. They can’t know what kind of man he really is. I hate to see them fight, or worse, die, for something—someone—so unworthy.”
I closed my eyes and lifted my chin up. I prayed that Nic’s count on Dumont’s followers was off. Like Stephan, I hated the thought of senseless bloodshed, but in my experience, you didn’t move forward without giving something up. If Dumont refused to back down, I really didn’t see any other way out of this. I’d love to shield Stephan and the rest of the princes from something like an all-out war with actual armies on each side, but at this point in time, I didn’t see another way out of it.
24
Perhaps I should’ve mentioned before I got in the airplane that I’d never flown before. I was a foster home child. It wasn’t like my foster parents were scurrying around to send me on vacations. I’d dreamed about flying before. It always seemed so mystical. A way to get somewhere really fast, but up above all the clouds so that when you stared back at Earth, everything looked so small and insignificant. It was kind of telling. Maybe if we weren’t on the way to save a guy I loved, I would come up with something about how we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff and everything was small stuff, but it wasn’t, really. Was it?
Saving Nic was my number one priority. The Dumont Clan vampires were creeping up on him. We’d made the right decision to come pick him up. Who knew what would happen if they did catch up with him? Surely it would be a fight, and being as outnumbered as Nic was, it definitely wouldn’t have been a victory on our side.
The plane dipped and I grabbed onto the metal sides. Ryan Pavone had been able to procure a slightly larger plane than his normal one. It was a bit like a cargo plane, and he’d already told me that if we crashed, I was pretty much as good as dead. Maybe that was the reason for my sudden fear of flying. It definitely wasn’t the way I imagined being introduced to it.
Lex sat across from me on the floor. Her lips curved up when she saw my minor freak out. “Here I thought you weren’t afraid of anything, Stuart,” she said, speaking into her headset.
I smiled back at her, trying to relax my nerves. “First time. Just trying to get my bearings.” My own headset smelled like funk from whoever usually flew this hunk of metal. I closed my eyes and remembered who I was doing this for. He owed me big time though. I was thinking a much needed vacation after all this. Somewhere we could fly to. First-class. Not any of this cargo-plane-turned-passenger nonsense.
The speaker crackled in my ear and Ryan spoke from the cockpit. “Fifteen minutes until landing.”
Lex held the headset to her ear while she listened to his voice, then grabbed the mic and put it closer to her mouth. “Roger that. Connor’s got our ears down on the ground. He’s got us nicely lined up with Nic being at the pickup spot just two minutes after our arrival. As soon as we get him and Dumont inside the plane, be prepared to take off again. I don’t want any wasted moments. The sooner we get the package back to Gregor the better.”
“Package,” Ryan snickered.
I rolled my eyes, but Connor’s soothing voice sounded from my earpiece. “Don’t be stupid, Pavone. Also, no one congratulated me on how awesome I am at getting you and Nic there at basically the same time. I mean, we couldn’t have planned it any better if we’d planned it that way all along.”
I smiled at him. “It was a sweet job, Connor.”
I colored once I realized I said it out loud. Connor only chuckled back, the sound easing my stress. He mock cried. “She cares. She really does.”
“Alright, alright,” Lex said, though I could see from the look on her face she was enjoying this as much as I was. “Let’s keep our minds on the task at hand. As soon as we land, T.J. opens up the doors, I move out with Stuart right after, then T.J. Zeke, I want you to hang back and secure the plane unless we get company then I want you to do both.”
I sneaked a look back at him. He was as calm as a cucumber. To me, he didn’t have any emotions other than cocky and asshole. Sure, he may have tried to thank me once, but he was still cocky when he did it. It shouldn’t bother me so much. I guessed as long as he was cocky while we were saving Nic, I could tolerate him better. Apprehension niggled in my brain though. Would Zeke and I always be going out on missions together? Was that my plight from now on? To get paired up with this jerk? I hoped not. At least after graduation when I was awarded the guardianship of the Ravanas, I wouldn’t have to see him again. I hoped.
“Two minutes,” Ryan said.
I realized then that the plane was making its descent. I held on to the coarse rope I was using as a grip as the plane tilted, nose down. Memories came flooding back to me as soon as my fingers touched the woven strands. The rope climb. The obstacle course. A lot had changed in such a short amount of time. In a way, I couldn’t wait to get back to The Fort and finish what I’d started. Even though what we were doing now was more like the real world, I could admit it was nice having the sanctity of The Fort, back when we thought nothing could touch the Ravanas and the worst thing I would have to do in guarding them would be making sure people didn’t trespass, or making sure those who were at the estate should’ve been at the estate. Dumont had given our world a lot of fear in a short amount of time. It was time for him to pay.
My stomach clenched as my ears popped. I was too scared to look and see how fast the earth was rising to meet our plane. I thought taking off was bad, this was worse. At least with taking off we were moving away from the thing that could kill us. During landing, we were coming closer and closer to a hard surface that we were supposed to glide across. In this case, we were landing in a field with just enough room to slow the plane down, turn it around, and then take off again.
“Impact in three, two…”
I gritted my teeth together to keep from making any embarrassing sounds. Like crying or yelping. Nonchalantly, I traced my floral tattoo with my thumb, making sure to touch the four stems that represented my life.
The wheels touched down. The plane bounced up and down. I closed my eyes until I could tell we were rolling along the ground nicely—and safe. “I’m going to make the turn at the edge of the field. Feel free to jump down as soon as I make it.”
T.J. winked as he walked past me and moved into place. I got up after him, my legs a little shaky, letting Lex go in front of me. She had a stake already in her hand at the ready, and I followed suit. Mentally, I took a tally of what weapons I had on me and where they were on my person. I had two stakes around my waist, one in my pant leg and a knife in a holster around my ankle. The knife wouldn’t kill a vampire, but it would hurt them.
The three of us got jostled to the side as the plane made a wide, sweeping arc. Once the plane faced the other direction and Ryan gave us the go ahead, T.J. unlatched the door. Lex jumped down and headed for the tree line Connor had brought up from the aerial maps. Just beyond the tree line was the road where Nic would stop, exit with Dumont, and run back toward the plane, hopefully leaving all of Dumont’s people staring up at us from the ground while we happily flew back to the estate. They knew where the estate was, so we wouldn’t be rid of them for long, but what we really wanted was time to talk to Dumont without his gang of people, time to figure this all out without resorting to a blood bath.
“Good luck, Team,” Connor said.
I took my headset off and jumped. My knees still a little wobbly from the flight, I had to tuck and roll before getting to my feet and jogging after Lex. I didn’t have to look behind me to know that T.J. would be there.
Lex turned, her mouth moved, and she pointed toward the tree line. My eyes widened as I realized she was saying some
thing, but with the changes in elevation of my first flight, my ears were messed up. It sounded like I was hearing through a tin can. I put my fingers near my ear and made furious circles until my ears popped. I yawned, trying to relieve the pressure all the while still following after Lex who’d turned back around and started moving faster toward the road. That was when I saw it. Christian’s sleek car. It pulled over to the side of the road with a cloud of dust trailing after it like sandy plumes in the sky. The driver’s side door opened, and my heart lurched, spurring my feet along even more. By then, I was running side-by-side with Lex who was notoriously a fast runner. I may not have had the time to go on my daily runs like I was used to doing, but the repetitive movement was still there. My muscles knew when they needed to stretch, and burn.
Nic jumped out of the car, leaving the front door wide open and pulled at the back door. He pulled out a body by his legs first. Lex and I were almost there. We were running through the little stretch of woods that bordered the road. Twigs and branches broke underneath our feet as we barreled through. As if he’d heard me and only me, Nic turned. Dumont was halfway out of the car, but when Nic turned, it was as if he’d forgotten all about what we were trying to do. His eyes met mine. As dark as he always looked, I swear his face brightened when he saw me. The shadows may have only pulled back minutely, but I still noticed it.
I smiled. Then, a wood stake went sailing past Nic’s face.
I cried out as Nic jumped back. His eyes widened and his eyes focused on the stake as it passed. He ducked, then looked behind the car.
“We have company,” Lex shouted.
Zeke should be exiting the plane as she said that. This was the second time I had to put one of my princes’ lives in his hands. I still wasn’t comfortable with it, but my options were slim. We all had to work as a team now that we knew some of Dumont’s people were here.
“T.J., you get Dumont. Stuart, take Nic and get him back to the plane.”