Ravana Clan Vampires: Complete Series

by Moore, E. M.

  8

  We lay on my bed waiting for the news. On the outside, I looked like the perfect picture of patience. On the inside though, I was a screaming mess.

  Stephan was the first to move. Not surprising. He probably heard the rest of them coming up the stairs and making the slow walk to my door. Did they hesitate out front? Did they whisper to one another at all?

  These were some of the things I wish I knew, and would’ve known if I’d been a vampire. I hated being in the dark. If I’d had a clue about what the verdict was, my nerves wouldn’t have been eating away at me when I finally did turn to find all of them staring at me—even Stephan—as if he was at the meeting too. As if he’d heard it first-hand like the rest of them.

  I moved to the edge of the bed, my hands curling into the comforter. Staring at them all together still gave me a little thrill. They were mine—all of them. However this turned out, I should be grateful. If they wanted me to fight, I’d fulfill the reason why I was brought here. No one could wonder then. No one could ask why the Ravanas brought an outsider in with no training, no skills. I wouldn’t be seen as the odd man out ever again. I was brought here to fulfill a duty, and if I was chosen, I’d have done it. Actually, not just if I was chosen. Being chosen was just the first step. And if that happened, I wouldn’t receive anymore snide looks from Zeke or worry about him trying to test me or jump me or hate me.

  But if I didn’t get chosen…look what I had in front of me. I had this to come back to. I had these arms, these legs, to wrap around me and keep me safe for the rest of my life—no matter how long that was. Someone else would carry the burden of the fight. Someone else would carry the weight of this world on their shoulders, and we would just have to live with the consequences. But there was that word. That so important word. Live. At least we knew we would live.

  Soren said if we lost, he wouldn’t hesitate to leave. That after the fights ended, I should take off with my princes. We would do that, taking anyone close to us along for the ride. We might not have the structure around us, but we would have one another.

  They formed a semi-circle in front of me, and then Connor stepped forward. I shouldn’t have been surprised. They were always sending Connor in to make me feel better emotionally. He had a beautiful spirit, one that made mine want to rally to meet his.

  My gut clenched. It took me a second to realize the truth, but it was plain as day in front of me. Connor was the one they’d chosen to tell me the news, and if Connor was the one telling me the news… Well, then.

  He held his arms out, and I walked into his embrace. He nuzzled his cheek against mine and squeezed me to his chest. “I’m sorry, Princess. They didn’t choose you.”

  I squeezed my eyes closed and let the words sink into me. They didn’t choose you. They didn’t choose me. My mind was a war of emotions. Relieved. Upset. Confused. Startled. Safe. I clung to Connor and buried my head in his chest. “I don’t know what to think.”

  He pulled away, his hands coming to rest on my cheeks. “I’ll tell you what you can think. You can look at me. You can look at the rest of us and know that now this is settled, there is literally nothing that can take us away from each other. No matter what happens, we’ll be together—the five of us—just like it was meant to be. You have me and my brothers by your side for as long as you want us.” He took a deep breath. “And this doesn’t mean we’re going to lose. We have excellent fighters. We’re already winning. They gave us a gift. The gift of knowing we’ll all be safe together for a long time to come.”

  Stephan moved to just in front of me, his green eyes bright. “Isn’t that what you always wanted deep down, Ariana? To have a family again. I remember watching you go through life as if you were going through the motions. You didn’t have anyone to come home to. It was just you, fighting in a cruel world for yourself. Now you have us, and you’ll always have us.”

  Heat clogged my throat and moved to the back of my eyes as I tried not to let my emotions show. My chin wobbled, the traitor that it was, and I blinked hard, trying to regain my composure. Stephan had hit the nail on the head. It’s what I’d always wanted. To love. To be loved. To know that somewhere out there there was someone who was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about them. To know that there was someone out there who would care if something happened to me. There were so many nights when in foster care, or in that small, crappy apartment on my own, that I’d wondered if I died—maybe mugged and beaten, maybe of starvation—would anyone even notice? And my funeral. Would anyone come? The truth would always hit me so hard it would bring me to my knees. I was no one to everyone. I walked through people’s lives, not into them. I observed people’s lives, not joined them.

  Not anymore. I had them. And it was really all I ever wanted. More than I ever wanted. Who would’ve thought there would be not one person for me, but four? Instead of finding that special someone, I found four special someones to make up for the no ones I’d had.

  Nicolai walked forward and Connor and Stephan backed off. “I know somewhere in your crazy big heart that you’re upset, Ri. Don’t be. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other opportunities to fight for us. We’re just not that smart.”

  He cracked a smile and I tried to follow suit, but my lips trembled instead. If Nicolai was trying to make me laugh, then he truly realized what a blow this was to me. Out of all of them, him and I had connected about this very thing. Both of us would do anything for our group. We were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

  “They don’t need you, Ri. We need you.”

  I nodded, his face becoming distorted by the hot tears now filling my eyes. Christian moved forward with vampire-like speed. He picked me up and held me to him. I gasped at the sudden contact, at the sudden raw outburst from him, and all it did was make him hold me closer. “I’m not even going to pretend. I couldn’t be more happy right now. I love you. To me, they did us the biggest favor in not choosing you. They solidified our future together. Soon, this will all be over and we can move forward. Together. Like it’s supposed to be.” His hands combed through my hair. “I know we’re not all out of danger yet and I should care for the fate of the rest of everyone out there, but inside, I’m really just rejoicing in what this means.” He took a deep breath, his chest knocking into mine like it was a surprise to him too. When he started to talk again, he fought for control. “You and I, and Nicolai and Stephan and Connor, will all be able to walk out of here after this. It may not be the way we all dreamed, staying in this house to start our lives, but the most important parts will be there. The five of us.”

  A hand moved to rub my back. “You know he’s right, Ri.”

  I wasn’t disputing that. At all. It was exactly how I felt. I nodded into Christian’s chest, and then breathed in deep, taking with it all the anxiety and agony of having your future up in the air and expelling it. I wanted a choice and I got one. We had a path we could follow. There were things to do now. Our remaining fighters would have to be coached by Soren in hopes there would only be two more matches. The least amount of fights the better because no matter what the princes said now about being happy we were going to stay in tact, if Gregor fell victim to this war, they’d be devastated.

  Stepping back, I faced them all. “Okay.” One-by-one their expressions lifted. I cracked a smile, a very small smile. “Okay,” I repeated. Connor was the first to look fully relieved, and then narrowed his eyes when I spoke again. “We have a lot of things to do now.”

  “Gregor still needs to be trained, in case,” Nicolai stated, his face all business now, the seeming threat of my impending meltdown gone.

  “And Soren will need to be made aware about who was chosen and what their strengths are so we can compare them to his knowledge of their warriors. Who fights next?”

  “Either Lex or Samuel,” Christian said. “Soren thinks they might send in their best guy to get a win so probably Lex. She’s taking their number one, but as you already know, we won’t know who it is they’ll a
ctually send in to fight until a few minutes after the sun goes down.”

  I started pacing as I took the information in, my thumb coming up to trace back and forth across my lower lip. Right. That made sense. Lex would fight their big guy and then Samuel— Samuel…? I stopped in my tracks. “Samuel’s going in?”

  Stephan looked at the rest of them with me, curiosity in his eyes until Christian nodded once. “He was chosen.”

  “Samuel Rajyvik? The Samuel?”

  Nicolai cocked his head. “That surprises you?”

  “It’s just…he’s a teacher, he’s not a guard. Sure, he runs the training facility, but does that really give him the knowledge to do this?”

  “Princess…Honey…,” Connor started, a smile lighting his face. “Samuel doesn’t just coordinate the guard training facility. He’s one of the only vampires in our world who’s trained as a guard, and still has the superior abilities the rest of the vampire population does. How else could he run our training facility?”

  “I guess I never thought about his abilities in real world fighting. No offense, but fighting for themselves isn’t something vampires do very well.”

  “I take offense to that,” Nic said.

  I rolled my eyes, and shrugged. It was the truth. I knew Nic wanted to train more, and he and Christian were about as trained as any vampire in their world could be, but to send one of the vampires into this very important, very dangerous match. It didn’t make senses. I stared back at Nic. “Just…can he win?”

  “He wouldn’t be going out there if he couldn’t,” Christian said, his tone matter-of-fact. “He can win. He’ll be a better match physically than any of the guards, and he’s properly trained.”

  “Okay,” I said, holding my hands up. “It’s just that he always stands there while we’re running.”

  Connor spoke up, his tone light. “He just doesn’t want to make you look bad.” He took off into a blur, ran around me once—probably—and then returned to his spot, his arms crossed over his chest and his chin jutting into the air with a cocky smile tilted over his face.

  Point taken.

  “Fine. Soren already talking to them now then?”

  “They went to the training rooms in the guard wing as soon as the meeting ended. They’ll train for a little while, talk with Soren, then get some sleep before they wake up and do it again tomorrow before the next fight.”

  “Gregor is…?”

  Nic pulled out his cell phone. “If he’s not down there already, I can get him down there and we can go through some things.”

  I nodded, watching as we all spurred into action. Sure, they didn’t want me to fight, but that didn’t mean I was just going to sit around and let everyone else do the work. There were other things to be done. For one, I could be a sparring partner for our fighters. Soren could tell me how to move, how to act, pretending to be one of Dumont’s men for training purposes. Actually, that was exactly what I would do. “Alright, let’s go.” I turned to Stephan. “Would you mind coming down too? In case anyone gets injured in training. They’ll need to be mended right away.”

  His emerald eyes sparkled. “Of course. I’ll just stop by the infirmary first and grab some things.”

  The five of us moved through the estate again like one unit until Stephan broke off to head to the infirmary momentarily as we continued toward the guard training rooms. Inside, there were already sounds of training, metal clanking against metal and thuds against the mat. When I walked in, there were three separate training areas sectioned off for each of the fighters. Samuel worked weaponry, Lex worked takedowns and…and Zeke was working stakes with a propped up T.J..

  I froze in place. I hadn’t even asked about the third fighter. They told me about Lex and Samuel, but I hadn’t even thought to ask about the third match. “Him?”

  Him? Of all people. Zeke over me? Were they all out of their damn minds?

  Just as I thought that, Zeke rolled, sending a wooden stake flying into the body dummy across the room. I didn’t see where it landed, but I was guessing exactly where it should have because he stood up with that same cocky expression I was used to seeing on him.

  Son of a bitch.

  9

  All around me, the training sounds still buzzed. I took a step forward, and a hand closed over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”

  By this time, people noticed we’d walked in. I tried to school my face, but I couldn’t stop the anger from rising. Zeke? Zeke who trained for the recognition of it all. Zeke who trained only because he wanted the coveted spot, not because he actually wanted to save the Ravanas’ lives. Zeke who’d brought me nothing but misery since I came here.

  I didn’t trust him. Would never trust him.

  A body moved into view. I worked my way up his dark clothing, and settled on his shadowed face. “Don’t do this here.”

  “Him?” I asked, my body already trembling as just the thought made me want to dispel it as a lie. They couldn’t do this. They couldn’t choose Zeke over me because that would mean… Well, it would mean a bunch of different things. That he had out-trained me at Rajyvik. That he’d outworked me, too. That they thought he was better. It didn’t matter that I’d received the Medal of Valor or was chosen to go out on missions when he hadn’t because when it really mattered most, they thought he was better than me.

  My stomach lurched, but I steeled my fingers into fists.

  I was second. I wouldn’t get the Ravanas placement. I—

  Hands tugged on me from behind and within an instant, we were back out in the hallway again just outside the training room door. A hand waved in front of my face. “Snap out of it, Princess. You look like Nicolai.”

  “Shut up,” a husky voice hissed.

  “Well, it’s true,” Connor said over his shoulder.

  “It’s Zeke she’s pissed about, genius. We should’ve told her in her room.”

  That couldn’t be more obvious. I clenched my jaw together to keep those words in. “Why him?”

  Christian moved into my line of sight, taking a peek at Nicolai before peering into my eyes again. “They didn’t really specify why, just made general comments. Bravery, skill…”

  I shook my head. “He won’t do it. He won’t win.”

  “Ri, they chose him,” Nicolai said from behind his brother.

  “I don’t care if they did. They’re wrong. This is just a job to him.”

  “But it doesn’t really matter, does it?” Christian asked, his voice hardening. “The decision’s already been made, and there’s nothing any of us can do.” He turned and started for the training room entrance again. Over his shoulder, he said, “All we can do is just help them before it’s their turn. Besides, he’ll probably fight last and if we win the next two, we won’t even need him.”

  He didn’t spare me another glance before moving inside again and walking up to Soren to engage him in conversation. I stared two holes straight into his back. Nic walked by and bumped my shoulder. “He’s just so relieved you’re not going in that arena. Don’t take it personally.”

  Right. Don’t take it personally. This was what I was brought here to do! To learn, to train, to beat out Zeke for the spot he thought was his so I could be with my princes. That was my goal from day one.

  Connor slipped his hand around my middle and walked me forward. “Come on. Let’s play nice. You don’t have to work with him. You can just help Lex and Samuel right now,” he said, pointing in their direction.

  I glared at them. Cold betrayal washed over me. Lex was my friend, my mentor, and Samuel, he was who I’d sought to impress from the beginning. He was the one who’d make the decision on my fate, and here he’d already made it. I was second. Still. Always.

  I pushed Connor’s hand away and spun on my heel. “I need a second.” Or a minute. Or forever. What in the hell?

  I walked from the room and then ran down the hallway. Outside, the spectators in this crazy war game were quiet and I wondered if the earlier fight had made thi
s all real for them. There was no celebrating or shouts. It was as quiet as the night should be.

  Footsteps sounded behind me. I slipped down a narrow stone hall that led to a circle-shaped room. There was an exterior door directly on the other side. My hand closed around the latch, but a voice rose up. “Where are you going?”

  I whirled. It was those same piercing eyes that greeted me to this world. The one who took me from my front door. Why had he even bothered if he didn’t believe in me? I wanted to voice all this, but the only thing that would make it from my brain to my throat was “Why?”

  Samuel straightened his shoulders. “You’re a guard-in-training, Ariana. I don’t have to answer to you.”

  My mouth fell open and I laughed. It was a short, harsh sound I didn’t recognize. “A guard-in-training. Of course. That’s what I was when I was kidnapped, what I was when I snuck into the compound to save the guards, including your family, from Dumont’s men. That’s what I was when I went out on a scouting mission and—”

  He crossed his hands over his chest. “Are you questioning my decision?”

  “Yes!” My hands came up in frustration, but I forced them back down again. “You know no one will fight for them better than me. Especially not Zeke. Not him.”