Ravana Clan Vampires: Complete Series

by Moore, E. M.

  Where there was an Ariana, that was one thing I would always have, hope.

  She’d lifted my brothers up before she even knew we existed, and she kept doing it now, falling for us one right after the other until we were one unit, a family. Yes, hope was one thing I would always have when I had her. She was like a bright, shining star, glimmering in the distance just for us.

  5

  Four princes in my bed. A girl could get used to this.

  Connor was there first, of course, but they all showed up over the course of a few hours, Christian last. One by one, they snuggled in, their heads either next to mine on the pillows or near my hips, their hands cradling my thighs or calves, or resting against my breast—Nicolai. None of us said a word as we allowed the others to join us, making room in this world that was ours, and ours alone. We judged time by the noise level of the crowd beneath my window and the darkening of the room.

  As if by some predetermined understanding, we all sat up at the same time. I took them in one right after the other. Nicolai, his features surprisingly dark and sad as he looked at me, and then looked away. Stephan, his stunning emerald eyes catching me in his grasp and almost refusing to let me go. Connor, his tilted, wary smile made that much more perfect in his attempt to be happy for me. Then, Christian, his serious demeanor almost wistful, sad as we looked at one another.

  At times, I thought he was the strongest, but like many strong-willed men, they usually had a kryptonite, something that could bring them to their knees in an instant. I hated that I was that for him. It made me push off the bed and stop wallowing. “Your father needs training. I’m not saying it’s going to come down to that, but if it does…”

  “Already on it,” Nicolai said. “Dad and I met up in the training room earlier to go through some things. He’s actually not as bad as you might think.” Connor raised his eyebrows at his brother, but Nicolai ignored him. “He’s quick. That’s going to be his strength. If we can capitalize on that…” Nicolai shrugged, leaving his comment hanging there. I was sure every one of us in the room finished that sentence in our own way. For me, it was ‘If we can capitalize on that, he might not die.’ But in reality, I was hoping it wouldn’t come down to that.

  “Great,” I said. “T.J.—”

  “T.J. and Soren were in the training rooms when we were in there. Soren was very helpful. I took notes, in case…”

  A cold shiver ran down my spine. In case I needed it… “Good idea. When will the rest of the fighters be chosen? No matter who they are, they’ll have to be prepped. The sooner we know, the better. Soren’s agreed to help out. We can take advantage of that.”

  The princes looked around at one another until we were finally all staring at Christian. He sighed. “Soon, I think. Lex and Samuel are making the final decisions and they went off by themselves after the meeting. I wouldn’t be surprised if they already know.”

  The fist tightened the knot in my stomach again, turning it and turning it. “Okay. So, we’re good on that front. What else do we need to do?”

  After a few moments of us looking at one another, Connor raised his hands in defense. “Don’t look at me, I was making the princess happy.”

  Nicolai rolled his eyes. A shadow passed over Christian’s face, and Stephan just shook his head. He stepped forward a little. “I set up a triage tent. In case…”

  I smiled at him. “Great idea, Stephan. Just because we’re going to win every fight doesn’t mean the fighters aren’t going to be injured. Good thinking.”

  His cheek bones turned a ruddy red.

  “Actually, Ri,” Nicolai said, interrupting the moment. “We only need to win the first three. Best out of four. We win the first three, no need for the fourth fight.”

  A new excitement spread out over my limbs. I hadn’t thought about that. If we won the first three fights, we could spare the fourth fighter. On both sides. And the thought of sending in Gregor would be a bad memory on top of that. “I’m sure they know this, but in case anyone asks, we need our best three fighters at the top of the lineup. T.J. is a great start. He’s the best besides Lex.”

  “Then Lex will probably be next,” Nic suggested. “I mean, I don’t really know, but that’s how I would do it. The others are up in the air as far as I could tell at the meeting. T.J. and Lex are the best. The others are…negotiable.”

  Despite what it meant, I couldn’t help narrowing my eyes at Nicolai as he spoke. I’d hoped he thought I was one of the best fighters, and the fact that he hadn’t come right out and said it, hurt. On the same token, he could’ve just been avoiding saying it because we all knew what that meant.

  I smiled at all of them. “No matter what happens, we’re all going to be okay.”

  “We know that, Ri.”

  Christian looked away, his jaw working. I strode up to him, the rest of the guys tensing as I took hold of Christian’s chin. Nicolai cocked his head toward the door at the rest of his brothers. “Just don’t be long, Ri. T.J. wants to see you before he goes out there. I don’t think we have much time now.”

  I nodded, waiting until the door clicked behind the other princes, and then looked Christian in the eye. I pulled myself on my tiptoes to get a better advantage, but there was still a bit of a height difference. “Everything is going to be fine, Christian. You have to start believing that.”

  A fury of red crept up his neck, and a vein feathered there. “We all said that about Jake, too, and we know what happened then.”

  Refusing to still look at me, I bent his head down. “I refuse to believe that all this happened to us just to be taken away at the first sight of some difficulty.”

  “Some difficulty?” His jaw locked tight, and then it was like an avalanche, a ball of ice tripping over itself as it grew and grew through its journey down the mountain. “You know they suggested you, right? They talked about you as if you were just a means to an end. What kind of skills you brought to the table. Did you have enough experience under your belt? Were you mature enough to take this on? What about real battle scenarios? Did they think you could handle that? Did you have enough first-hand experience, more so than the others involved? It was like you were just a thing they had to make plans with.”

  I struggled for breath. Not because I didn’t understand why they said those things, but because I’d never seen Christian so overcome with emotion. He was usually the serious, level-headed one. I reached up to cup his face and he backed away.

  “Forget it. I know you agree with them. There’s some sick part of you that thinks what they’re doing is okay, but I’m not okay with that and it doesn’t matter to me if you are as good as they say you are—as I really believe you are—I don’t want you anywhere near that place. I don’t care if you were the best warrior we had, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near there. You’re more important to me than anything else, and that’s what matters to me. My brothers and I already lost one stem to our group.” He took my arm and pulled it taught, his fingers grazing over my tattooed upper arm and shoulder, at the vines there that crisscrossed and interwove like one couldn’t live without the other if it tried. “We can’t lose another.”

  My mouth went dry. I stared at his touch, at his thin, spindly fingers that gripped me with such force, but love all at the same time, that my breath was taken away. Jake would’ve been apart of us. He was taken away too early, I’d always thought that, especially from me. I wasn’t going to let another part of us leave. “I—I don’t know what to say, Christian. We don’t really have a say in things right now. We don’t know what’s going to happen. All we can do is take it hour by hour. I don’t know what will happen with T.J.’s fight. I don’t know who they’re going to choose, but I do know that right now, we still have one another and I’m not going to spend it worrying about something that could be. Just don’t leave my side, okay? Let’s all just stay together, until…”

  Christian looked up. His blue-gray eyes a steely blue, like liquid mercury. He took a step forward, and on instinct, I too
k one back. He stalked me until my back hit the bedroom door. He was in full-on vampire mode, a creature of the night. I wasn’t scared. Intimidated, maybe, by his prowl, but not scared.

  “You won’t leave us.”

  I shook my head, my hands flat against the wood door behind me. “I won’t leave you.”

  “You promise.”

  “I promise.”

  His stare held me in place. His arms wove around my back until I was lifted in the air, my thighs settling around his hips. He rocked into me and I gasped.

  There was so much to do, but this was where our focus should be. On one another, in case the world did crumble beneath us.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” he breathed out, his hot breath caressing my neck. I lifted my chin to give him ample room. His fangs teased my skin as a roll of pleasure doused me.

  “I don’t need a lot of time.”

  “They’re waiting for us,” he said, his lips smoothing over my skin.

  In answer, I reached between us and slipped the button through his pants and pulled the zipper down. The clothing fell to the floor.

  He groaned, his hips arching up to meet mine. Immediately, I wished I hadn’t gotten dressed after my encounter with Connor. It would be so easy for him just to slip inside me right now if I weren’t wearing anything. I pushed against him. “Please.”

  Within a few moments, I felt the air from the room slide against my exposed parts. I looked down to find both my pants and panties on the floor next to Christian. I couldn’t help the smile that overtook my face. “Reason number one-forty-three why I love that you’re a vampire.” I swallowed. “I need you inside me.”

  Christian’s jaw hardened right before he rolled his hips into mine. My fingers dug into his shoulders as he entered me, every inch more pleasurable than the last. He reached around and held my ass to him as he pulled in and out, his movements rubbing against my sensitive nub with every stroke. He stepped away from the door an leaned me back, my head resting against the wood as his hand crept up my stomach and under my bra to fondle my breasts. This was too perfect. Every touch was like fire. I’d been right when I said I didn’t need a lot of time. I needed like no time. Sometimes just his looks were smoldering, but with his precise movements, he could play my body right into submission.

  I clenched my muscles and Christian nearly choked. “I hope you’re close because I’m nearly undone. As if you weren’t tight enough.”

  I bared down harder, loving the way it felt. They could always turn me to Jell-O, but to think that I could do that to them. I squeezed and squeezed until it became too much and I was clenching around him involuntarily, my heart in my throat and his name on my lips.

  Overcome, Christian stepped forward until he had the door to brace us as he came. He stared into my eyes the whole time, as if claiming me, reminding me of my promise, and I held onto it, keeping it close to my heart. There was no way I was letting this go. None.

  It was perfect bliss.

  6

  The princes and I walked to the training room five across, me in the middle of Nicolai and Christian with Stephan and Connor flanking them. It was stupid, just a walk really to see T.J. before he went out there and laid it on the line, but to me, it was more than that. It was a show of solidarity. A show that we weren’t hiding anymore. It was almost as if we didn’t care anymore. None of us had said anything out loud, but there wasn’t going to be any more relationship hiding. Not when we knew who and what the real enemy was. What could they do to us now with the threat of death surrounding us? We were one, and we were letting it out there for everyone to see.

  It was refreshing, and new, and even though the setting was dismal and fear still twisted my gut, I felt a sense of empowerment as we walked into the training room. Lex and Samuel were there with T.J., along with Gregor who waited by the door. He had an uncharacteristic sheen of sweat over his forehead, and it didn’t look like it was just there because of stress, because we were about to have the first battle that counted for so much, but his chest rose and fell as if he were tired from exertion. I smiled fondly at him, and he nodded his head once toward me before the princes broke off to speak with him and I kept moving forward to the other group.

  I bit my lip as I got closer, not knowing what to say to someone who could very well be dead within a few minutes. That was only a fleeting thought though, something I really didn’t focus on. If T.J. couldn’t survive, we were all screwed. I had more faith in him than I had in myself. He was a tremendous guard.

  To my surprise, however, when I moved forward, the group was laughing. Samuel stood back a little but T.J. and Lex’s shoulders were rolling with laughter. “Hey,” I said, looking from one to the other. Other than the fact that they looked delirious, I wasn’t really sure what to make of them.

  “Hey,” T.J. said, trying his best to regain control.

  Lex did the same as well, straightening her shoulders and looking over at me with a fond smile. “Here to wish our boy good luck?”

  I shrugged. “Something like that. He doesn’t need it though. I have a feeling he’s about to kick some major vampire ass.”

  “Do you now?” T.J. said, his lips curving into a smile.

  “I might’ve seen you do it before up close and personal. There’s no way I would bet against you.” All the while I spoke, my stomach tightened more and more. I genuinely liked T.J.. I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t even want him to get injured.

  Lex clapped him on the back. “He’s got it in the bag.”

  T.J. looked down and shook his head. “The only one who’s got anything in the bag is you when it’s your turn,” he said, looking at Lex with a proud smirk. “There isn’t anyone better than you. I mean, I could be persuaded to think that I’m number two…maybe one and a half…” He held his fingers up in a barely there difference between the two and we all laughed.

  A loud voice came from the doorway. “Please. We all know you’re number three, asshole.”

  My head whipped around, and I stared straight into the face of Matthews. He sat in a wheelchair, his hands poised over the wheels as he stared at T.J.

  “The only reason why you’re going in right now is because I can’t get out of this thing,” he said, kicking his foothold.

  T.J. broke into a grin. “I still wouldn’t count you out, brother.”

  Matthews shrugged.

  “They let you out then?”

  Matthews wheeled forward. “I wouldn’t miss the fights for the world. Have to cheer my people on.” He looked around the group, even smiling at me. After a moment, he looked back at T.J., all remnants of the reunion gone. “You good?”

  T.J. nodded. “I’m good.”

  They all did the same, an uneasiness growing, and a silence falling over us as the time neared. Even deep within the walls of the estate, the crowd outside could be heard.

  Soren walked through then, his hands jammed into his pockets. I blinked, barely recognizing him. His coloring was much better, no longer the wraith-looking vampire from the dungeon, but a healthy one with a glow and fierce eyes. He caught my eye for a moment before breaking into the circle and standing in front of T.J.. “It’s Torrent. Remember, he—”

  “He has a bad right leg, favors it sometimes. Prefers to wield the big, heavy weapons. Got it.”

  Soren nodded. “They’re ready.” He turned. “Dumont’s just arrived, Gregor.”

  Gregor wiped his face with the back of his hand and stood tall, his shoulders pulling back like the statue of a man he was. One of these days, maybe they’d even put a statue up of him somewhere. God knew we were in the middle of making vampire history. They sure as hell weren’t going to be making busts of Dumont’s sorry face. We all had to make sure of that. “I’ll give you a few moments, T.J.. The rest of us need to get out there.”

  Gregor left the room and we all followed after him. T.J. held onto my arm. I turned back and looked into two soft eyes. “Can you give me a second, Ariana?”

  “Of co
urse.”

  I looked around to see the princes leaving, uncomfortable glances back at me, but I smiled at them to quell any misgivings they might have. When everyone was gone, I turned to T.J.. His stare held mine only briefly before he started talking. “I’m about to go out there and fight, and there’s just one thing I wanted to clear up with you. I’m not sure who else they’re going to choose to go out there, but I haven’t held back on my feelings for you.” He looked away, his voice giving a little, before he turned to meet my eyes again. “Maybe it’s because I don’t know what’s going to happen out there, Ariana, but I just thought you should know, no matter how much of a lost cause it is, that I’ve never met anyone like you. I know your heart lies elsewhere, but at another time, I would’ve dedicated my win to you.”

  I shuffled my feet. “T.J….”

  “I know,” he said, his lips curling. “I just wanted you to know. Who knows? Maybe it’s some last, vain attempt on my part to show you that you can be with someone like you.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not what you need to be thinking about right now.”

  “I’m prepared,” he said quickly. “Thanks to you. You sent Soren to me. I know my opponent, which will make the fight that much easier. I’m not asking you to change your mind, I just wanted you to know that if something happens to me, I never got a chance to tell you that I’ve never been more impressed with anyone before in my life. You came into this world completely oblivious, yet you’ve grown into the guard you are. It was impossible not to feel something for you. Your strength, your power, your wisdom. In case you’ll need this talk and I don’t make it, my money’s on you, Ariana Stuart.”

  I stepped forward and put my hand on his shoulder. “You can give me this talk, if I need it, later because you’re about to go out there and kick some ass. If I hadn’t…” I shook my head. There was no use saying that. It felt like a lie that would scar my soul. “I can’t say that,” I said, smiling to him, hoping he would understand. “All I can say is, I hope you do find someone who’ll feel the same way about you. When you win this match, the girls will be scrambling to be with you. You’ll have your choice, I’m sure.”