by Moore, E. M.
Soren shut his eyes. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to the Ravanas’ chosen warriors. I have no doubt who Dumont will choose. I know them well.” He turned away from the window and stared at Connor. “I’ll help you.”
My gut twisted, and a new appreciation for Soren washed over me. In that moment, he had more strength than any person I’d ever met. To go against everything, everyone you knew and to fight for what you thought was right, that took more honor and guts than I could’ve ever imagined.
“We’ll win this,” I promised him, knowing full well that if we didn’t, Soren would probably be the first to die. Of course Dumont would have his traitor killed. He would not give any such reprieve to Soren that he pledged to give to us. But I had to do everything in my power to save him anyway. I promised him I would, and he’d given us everything I asked for and then some. Soren was one of the good ones in all this. Above all, he deserved to live out the rest of his life in peace like he wanted.
“You just keep yourself safe, Young One,” he said.
I nodded and then turned to Connor. “I’d like Soren given a proper room at the estate. If he’s going to help us, he doesn’t need to be spending the night in the cells. He needs blood and rest, and time with our soldiers.”
Connor nodded and slipped outside the room with his cell phone already to his ear.
Soren watched him walk away, and then looked at me. “I think I like him better than the other one, the dark one.”
I couldn’t help the smile his admission brought to my face. Nicolai was a particular brand of vampire that not everyone enjoyed. I would never pick favorites though. To me, they were all perfect in their own ways. “Connor has a way with people,” I said, looking at the closed door, already wishing he was again by my side. Who knew how much time we had left with one another?
“I see why you fight now. I see why you have the determination in your eyes. I often wondered how someone like you could come from the outside world and fit in as you did. I get it now.”
Love, I told myself, just as Soren said the same thing aloud. I nodded, agreeing with him. “People are willing to do a lot for love.”
“Will you fight if asked?”
“Of course,” I said, not even bothering to think about it.
He shrugged. “It’s sad. Like you’re caught between two things. You’d want to do it for love, but also, think what would happen if you don’t win? That love would destroy you. The reason why you wanted to go out there is the same reason why you lose…”
“I don’t think of it like that,” I told him honestly. “If chosen, I know the consequences. But to me, I’d die trying to fight for what I love, not dying because of it.”
“Semantics.”
I shrugged. “No. That’s just the thought process of someone…” I blew out a breath.
“Someone worth following,” he said, his lips turning up.
The door opened and Connor came strolling back in. “It’s all set. T.J.’s in the training room. I’ll take you down now if you want,” Connor said, looking at Soren.
Soren nodded and walked past me. Before leaving, he turned around. “Goodbye, Princess. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Connor darted back into the room, his gaze narrowed, but a smirk quickly following. “I’m not sure how I feel about you using that name.”
I shooed them both out, laughing silently to myself as I launched back onto the bed. Outside the window, I could still hear the sounds of impending battle. I picked myself up, walked toward the glass, and shut the curtains before laying back down again. For right now, things were falling into place. I could relax, a little. Maybe. If my body would let me. There was much to do, to prepare for, but even more to be thankful for, and to remind myself what we were fighting for.
I sent Connor a quick text. I hope you plan on coming back after you show Soren where the training room is…
I put the phone down and turned it to silent, knowing full well he’d be back as soon as he could.
3
Connor walked in. I wouldn’t have heard him except I heard the click of the lock falling into place. The room was silent until his knee depressed the bed and his arms folded around me as if they were always meant to be there. We laid silent and still for a long while, just soaking up the others’ warmth.
Finally, Connor kissed my neck. “Aren’t you going to ask me about the other names?”
I took his hand, intertwining my fingers with his and then kissed the closest piece of available skin—his forearm. Goosebumps spread over his arm, and I hugged him tight to me. “I have a feeling I know.”
“You do?”
I closed my eyes, knowing this would be difficult for Connor to talk about. “I’m not saying they’re going to choose me, but I don’t think it’s too cocky to say I’m sure my name has been brought up.”
He froze, his body locking up. I felt it all the way in my core. Rubbing his skin, I tried to soothe him. He breathed out, his hot breath caressing my neck. “Yes, your name was mentioned. A few times. More than a few times, and each time I thought Christian was going to come out of his skin.”
“He has to realize…”
“He does, but that doesn’t mean he, or any of us, have to like it. Just remember how you felt when Nicolai left us.”
“That was a low blow,” I grumbled.
He stifled a laugh into my arm and then moved my hair away from my ear to place a light kiss there. “Just pointing out the obvious, Princess. Just because we know you’re a possibility doesn’t mean we have to like it.”
“But you won’t interfere, will you?”
“I won’t,” he said. He hugged me tighter from behind, his fingers pressing into my skin, deepening the touch so I didn’t just feel the physical touch of it, but the pure emotion behind it. His fear, his pride, his…sadness.
I turned toward him, my hands landing on his shoulders as my leg wound around his. “I love you, Connor Ravana. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that our love has gotten us this far, why wouldn’t it take us all the way to the end?”
His fingers curled into my sides, his pinky just barely grazing the patch of skin between my shirt and jeans. “If anything happens—”
I pressed my mouth to his, silencing whatever vow he was about to make. Maybe Soren was right. How could he help if we already thought we would lose? Then again, what if I was right? Wasn’t it still okay to make arrangements? Preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. I poured every last mixed emotion into my kiss. I seared the memory of my lips into his and vice versa in case that was what we needed. I relished in him. I tasted Connor like it was the first time I’d had the chance. He was sweet, and funny, and the most human out of all my princes. I could just as soon see Connor at a frat party as I could at a Council meeting. He was that relatable, and in his averageness, there was something so special.
I deepened the kiss, breathing into him the life he’d given me. He growled deep in his throat, but in the next instant, he pushed me away. “If anything happens—”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” I assured him, looking deep into his blue eyes that were filled to the brim with love. Love for me. The stormy seas were almost a memory and I pleaded with him silently to give in, to this moment, to these feelings because that was what I needed right now, and whether he realized it or not, it was what he needed too.
With a half growl, half grunt, he forced me on my back, pulling my legs up around his waist so I felt the pressure of his thickness between us. I inhaled sharply, a blaze of heat already consuming me. I pitched my hips up to meet his, and his resolve crumbled in an instant. His lips were on mine, needy and all-consuming. His fingers dug under my shirt, kneading into my skin before letting go to peel the piece of clothing off of me. He took only half a second to stare down at me in awe before dropping his head to kiss his way up my abdomen to my bra line where he followed the curve up my chest until I was breathless and squirming beneath him.
“Oh, Conn
or.”
He reached behind, unclasping my bra deftly before pulling it down and allowing himself a taste of my sensitive skin. He clamped his mouth over my nipple and suckled until my toes curled into the bed. He was hardening and lengthening between us, only driving me crazier. I pulled at his shirt and our remaining clothes until it was just us, skin-to-skin, the remnants of everyday life cast aside until there was just what mattered. I cupped his face, telling him with my eyes what I knew deep, deep down. The love we shared would never destroy us. It wasn’t possible. Soren was wrong. Our love would never send me to my death. It just wasn’t possible. That didn’t mean I would escape it, it just meant that our love was there for only the truest of reasons. I didn’t know everything, but I did know that.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and then down as if he’d heard me as clear as if I’d spoken aloud. “I love you.”
He eased himself inside me, each of us melding into one another. He started out slow, but my fingers dug into him, egging him on. “Show me. Show me the way you want to show me.”
His eyes sparked as if I’d challenged him. I pressed my hips into his in response and he smirked. His arms locked out, he bared down into me, his hips connecting with mine with a sudden jolt. I gasped at the pressure, and the pleasure. He did it again, but this time, there was no smile when I cried out. He did it again, and again, pumping inside me as fast as he could, his hyper agility in full force so that my pleasure lengthened and never stopped. I came quick, and hard. My insides tightening around him, but Connor only focused further. His eyes set in concentration as his hips moved with the same ferocity as when he started. Biting my lip, I tried to match him. He worked me until my bones felt like jelly and the only thing I could concentrate on was the awareness of him between my legs, driving me higher and higher again with each thrust.
“God, yes, Connor,” I finally said, reveling in the appreciation he took of me. Already I was climbing toward orgasm again, and watching him only heightened my pleasure.
I wound my hands around the back of his neck and held on. His blue eyes rammed into mine with utter fullness that I started to break apart again. This one more drawn out than the last. My fingers dug into his neck as the first wave hit. I cried out, my eyes widening as the sensations scorched my insides. Connor trembled, and then he was right there with me. His face contorted into a beautiful mask of relief before he sunk into me again and again, his hardness convulsing inside me.
Breathless, he fell on top of me and I wound my arms around him, holding him to me as his orgasm subsided. His warring breaths pounded against my chest as if I could feel his heart coming out of his skin. I buried myself into him, tipping my chin and gripping onto him with everything I had in me. If anything happened, oh God, I would miss this… Being close to another being again. I remembered what it was like to have my mom hug me, and Jake. But after that, there wasn’t anyone really. Not until my princes.
Connor moved us to our sides, me still trying to keep my face hidden, not wanting to let him go for anything. He made small circles on my back with his fingers. “Nothing’s going to happen. I promise.”
And I’d made the same promise, but the truth was, that really wasn’t something we could promise to one another, was it? I could get chosen. And if chosen, I sure as hell wouldn’t pass it up. It was my duty after all, to keep the Ravanas safe. I would enter that arena. I would fight. I would listen as the songs rose up around me and collided with one another as I stalked the enemy. I would try to win, but that was the thing of it…try. I couldn’t promise I would come out the other side unscathed no matter how much I wanted to.
4
Christian
“This is asinine. You can no more send her out there than you could send me, your own son!”
Mother put her hand on my shoulder as I tried to regroup. My hands shook, my whole body didn’t even seem my own. When they mentioned her name at the meeting, I saw red. I’d blanked out completely. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they would mention her, but surely there were others to send. If there weren’t, what had we done, my brothers and I? Fallen in love with a girl only to send her to her death?
“You may very well have thought of that before you brought her into this world in the first place, Christian!”my father seethed. He struck me as a cookie cutter replacement of Nicolai then. So much stress, pent up rage, and a deep belief in their heart that they could do better. Always warring within themselves that they could be better. My mother tried to reach out for him, but he pulled away and walked around the other side of the Council room table. I knew he had many other things on his mind. Checkov, for one. He’d managed to not show up for the Council meeting, only leaving us with the reality that his loyalty had changed. He’d left us and went to the enemy.
My thoughts jumbled over themselves. This wasn’t my father’s fault. He’d done nothing to deserve my bitterness, but he was going to get it anyway because when you were fighting for someone you loved, you didn’t just roll over at the first opposition. That wasn’t even an option. “We didn’t have a choice.”
“As your mother reminds me daily,” he said, throwing his hands up in disgust. “’They had to know her’, she tells me. ‘They had to do what was best for them.’ One day you will be in charge of all this, and then what, Christian? We cannot show favorites. We cannot bend the laws to work them in our favor. Isn’t that why we’re here in the first place? Because that’s exactly the type of leader Dumont is!”
I stifled the rage inside me, clamping it down by gnashing my teeth together. I turned, my hands digging into the chair back in front of me. I could feel my teeth try to puncture my gums. I struggled against my nature, hoping to calm myself before I faced him again.
“They did not break any laws, Gregor,” Isabelle said, speaking for the first time. “They brought her here in the only way they knew how, which was as a guard. They didn’t turn her without her, or the Council’s, consent.”
Gregor turned sad eyes toward her. “You are only making my point for me, my love. They brought her here as a guardian and, as such, is capable, fully capable, of accepting this task if Lex and Samuel should choose her to fight for us. What would you both have me do? Secret her away? With all of you as well? Don’t you think in my heart I would have it that way? But what about showing our people what we stand for? If you all run away, what kind of message does it give to those who stand with me?”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t disagree with him. In fact, I agreed with him with every fiber of my being. But as a lover, as someone who cared about someone more than my own self, I wanted her as far away from here as possible. I wasn’t thinking rationally, and I knew it.
“There is nothing to be done,” Gregor said. His voice evened out. His steps moved closer to mine, and a heavy hand fell on my shoulders. “I am truly sorry, Son. I don’t want any more people to die than already have. I have come to care for Ariana as well. She is exactly what we need as we move into this next phase if we win. But, so aren’t all the other names mentioned earlier. Isn’t T.J., and Lex, and Samuel, and Zeke, and Peter and Luke’s lives as equally as worth living? What of their families? If they could, they would be by my side in an instant pleading their case as you have done, but my answer would be the same. If chosen, we have given them a great honor and great responsibility. Win or lose, they will be admired in our present, and in our future. All we can do for them now is pray for their strength, and for their mind, and for their will so that it might be stronger than their opponent that day.” He cleared his throat. “Just go be with her, my son. While you have the chance.”
His hand squeezed my shoulder before his footsteps took him from the room. Mother was there in an instant, taking my face in her long, slender fingers. Where Father always held true to his rules, Mother was right behind him with a comforting word. It had been that way since we were children. They loved us in their own way, and that didn’t change even though Father didn’t give me what I wanted. I knew that if h
e could, he would.
“He is very tired, Christian. Very tired. Checkov leaving—”
“I know,” I said. I never cared for the man, but he had been with my father for many years. To know that he was against him all this time must have been breaking my father from the inside out.
“Ariana is very strong.”
“I don’t doubt her skills, or strength. But she can only be as good as she can be. The other fighter might be better.”
“Or they might be worse. I know you’ve always felt my feelings to be absurd.”
“That’s not…” I shook my head, but she already had her hand held out to stop my next thought.
“I don’t care that you don’t believe in it. I do.” She cupped my chin. “Everything will be fine.”
She smiled, and I couldn’t help but follow suit. Her emotions cut into me unlike any other.
“We understand how much Ariana means to all of you, and as your father said, she means a great deal to us as well. I’ve come to think of her as a daughter, Christian. Unless I’ve read everything wrong, I believe she may very well be my actual daughter one day.” She lifted her eyebrows to look at me, and I felt my face turn red, which only deepened her smile. “I’m not just speaking lightly here. Everything will work out fine. She will be safe. You can count on it.”
My mother walked from the room, her dress just barely whispering across the floor as she exited through the Council room to the main estate. I swallowed the thick clog of failure that had been working its way up my throat. It was a last resort. One desperate plea to ensure Ariana’s safety. On one hand, I knew it wouldn’t work, but on the other, I just had to try. I fell into the chair and laid my head on the wood table, grasping onto hope with one outstretched hand. It was what Ariana was always talking about. That if we had hope, we had something. It was much better than fear, or sadness, or worse, pitying oneself.