Ravana Clan Vampires: Complete Series

by Moore, E. M.

  Nicolai moved forward, his chin tucked close to his chest as he made his way toward me, making him seem more menacing than he really was. “You ready to head out there?”

  I shook my head.

  He gave me a curious look. “Why?”

  “They might need me for some more training before we head out there.”

  Nic rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know why you’re trying your damndest to help this kid. Don’t get me wrong, I want him to win, but hasn’t he done enough to you? He seems to despise everything about you, and yet, here you are.”

  I shrugged. “It’s not about me right now. Or you. Or him. It’s about what’s best for the clan and that’s for Zeke to have everything he needs in order to win this fight. I’m sticking around because I would hope if I were in his position, even those who didn’t like me would still cheer me on. We can’t forget that he’s the one sacrificing his life out there.”

  I took a deep breath as my stomach roiled. What I said was based on a lie, but it was complete truth. The person fighting did deserve my best wishes at this moment. It wasn’t me versus him, although I was sure he wouldn’t feel the same when he woke up from getting knocked out, but what was a girl to do?

  A little voice in my head said, ‘Maybe let Zeke fight like everyone thought was going to happen…’

  I punched that thought in the face and stuck with my plan.

  This wasn’t about Zeke and I, or thinking that I was the best person for the job. It was about fulfilling a little piece of me and making sure I’d done everything I could to help us win. It was like how Stephan felt earlier. He didn’t want to leave because he knew he wasn’t done being of service. That was exactly it for me too. This was me being of service. All I knew was, I’d better win or there would be a lot of angry clan members. There would be a lot of ‘what if’s’.

  It was time for me to fight for who and what I loved. There was no better time than this. That love would give me strength, the knowledge, the will to fight through whatever Clive threw at me. This fight would encapsulate everything I couldn’t do when my mom’s life hung in the balance. I’d been too small, too scared. Not anymore. Not for me.

  A sure step walked through the entryway. We all looked up to find Soren standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. “It’s time.” He said it at Zeke, but as the thought settled in on everyone else, he peered over at me. A rush of cold washed over me as all the reasons I shouldn’t do this popped into my head right after the other. With each thought though, I squashed it down. I didn’t want to live my life being afraid, and that was just the fear rearing its ugly head time and time again.

  Nic reached for my elbow, but I pulled it just out of his grasp. “Do you guys mind if I have a moment with Zeke before he heads out there?” I smiled, my lips quivering the whole time, so I dropped it and went for a casual stance.

  Nic’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?” he whispered.

  I shrugged. “Last minute business.”

  Soren stepped up. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. Give them time to talk. We’ll be right out there.” He started ushering the princes out the door. Stephan went willingly. His too trusting soul not even worried that I would be doing anything brash. Connor gave me a smile even though he didn’t look as sure about the whole thing. It was Nicolai that was going to give the most trouble.

  “I’ll wait with you,” he said.

  My stomach lurched. I hated lying to him. “It’s going to be fine,” I said, smiling at him. “I just want to talk to him about something.”

  “And you’re choosing now to do it?”

  Panic crept up my neck, leaving a wake of fire. He was starting a scene now, and all my alarm bells were going off. He was suspicious. “Yes,” I said, eying him. “Maybe you could just wait right outside?”

  This made Nic pause. I could see through his eyes that he was trying to make sense of what I was doing. Telling him he could wait outside threw him off because he would still be right there ready to stop me from doing anything irrational.

  I pushed harder. “Really, I don’t mind.”

  He shook his head and turned. No doubt cursing how he was never going to understand women. When he turned, I gave Soren a look, and he nodded once. Soon, it was just Zeke and I. When I finally turned around to face him, he was leering at me. “I hope you’re not choosing now to confess your undying love to me because I can tell you right now the feeling isn’t mutual.”

  I rolled my eyes. As if I would ever think about him when I had four of the best men alive. He had to be kidding me. “Nope.”

  “Then what is it, Stuart? I’ve got a fight to win.” He bent over to pick up the wooden stake he placed on the bench and winced.

  I moved closer. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” he said. He stood up quickly and slid the stake into his weapons belt.

  His reaction didn’t sit well with me though. “Are you hurt?”

  He snatched another stake off the bench and barreled toward me, only stopping with his nose a few inches from mine. “I told you I’m fine, now just tell me what you went through all this trouble to say to me so I can get out there and do what they chose me to do.”

  I stepped back. I hadn’t even gotten the syringe ready yet. Already I could tell that I hadn’t thought this plan through well enough. “Nothing,” I said, acting unfazed. “Absolutely nothing.”

  Zeke shook his head and walked away. I fumbled for the vial, picking it out of my pocket, and tore the cap off the syringe before pushing it through the hole and drawing the liquid up out of the bottle.

  “I’ve never understood everyone’s fascination with you,” Zeke said as he walked toward the hall. “We’re all guards. We’re all out there putting our lives on the line. You’re nothing special.”

  “Never said I disagreed with that,” I told him, inching closer.

  He stopped and threw his head back into a laugh before turning. “Give me a break. You’re just another—”

  I quickly jabbed at his arm, piercing his skin, then pushed the syringe down. His eyes widened. He tried to push me away, but the medicine was already taking effect. He tilted to one side. “If I were a better person, I wouldn’t take as much pleasure in this, but I’m not. Good night, Zeke.”

  He swayed even more, and I took him by the forearms and maneuvered him toward the bench. He fell the rest of the way down. I positioned him just over the seat so he landed there, his head smashing against the wall at his back.

  I dropped the syringe and ran a hand over my forehead. Holy shit. I’d just done it. There was no turning back now. Zeke was out of commission and they needed a fighter. All I had to do was get past Nicolai.

  I walked toward the entrance to the training room. Soren and I hadn’t arranged anything ahead of time so I was going to have to wing it. “Now!”

  I ran from the room, my feet pounding against the stone floor. From the corner of my eye, I saw Soren loop his arms around Nic’s as he went to grab for me. He grazed my arm, but I was free. I knew I had to keep running and not look back because if Nicolai got out of Soren’s grip, he was coming after me and he was so much faster than I was.

  I turned the corner of the hallway that led outdoors. The crowd was in a frenzy. People watched the exit from the estate intently as they waited for the second warrior, but it was like watching a car wreck. Those were just extraneous details. My mind was on the goal in front of me and that was getting to the center of that arena before anyone stopped me. It would take dumb luck to do it, but I just had to.

  I pushed harder, digging the toes of my shoes into the ground as I ran. “Ariana!”, a voice screamed, but I went harder. Just before the entrance to the arena, fingers darted in front of me. I spun just out of reach and then continued, my foot landing solidly on the grassy arena floor.

  The noise fell away. All the excitement I’d just left in my wake faded to black as my legs took me to stand in front of Clive.

  There was just one t
hing standing between me and victory: his life.

  24

  The first thing I noticed about Clive was his smirk. His lips curled up, flashing those dagger-like teeth. There must have been a scene happening behind me because he looked over my shoulder, smiled, and then got into fighting position. I couldn’t think about what was going on back there right now. My task was in front of me. Everything Soren had said about Clive washed over me and I moved into left lead, the opposite of what I normally stood in. It was an awkward position for me, but I tried to make it seem as natural as possible. We circled one another, and I never took my eyes off his centerline, the line that could be drawn right from nose to navel. With that focus, I should be able to see anything coming at me.

  It was a good thing, too, because he immediately threw a left hook. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge it, but I was just quick enough to put my hand out to block it. Pain ricocheted through my forearm. On the outside, though, I was a mask of calm. I’d had just as many training sessions as the rest of our fighters had. If anything, I’d been doing more offensive training than the others because we’d worked a lot of defensive strategies training for Dumont’s Clan.

  I stuck my hand out to judge range and then pulled it back in. It was clear I was going to have to get in on this guy. He had longer arms than me. Or, I could just sit back and wait him out.

  I reached into the waistband of my pants and pulled out a stake. I’d made sure to have my usual ones on me all day so I didn’t look like I was suiting up to go do anything I wasn’t supposed to be doing. Clive eyed it and grinned before taking another swipe at me. I blocked him again, taking the brunt of the pain on my forearm. I tried to come around and dive in at him, but he stepped quickly back and out of range again.

  “Not bad, girl,” Clive said. “You’re not terrible.”

  I looked up at him as if to say ‘seriously?’.

  He made a few quick feet patterns and then shook his hands out. He wasn’t fooling me though. I could see him eyeing the way I carried myself the whole time. He shrugged. “I’m just trying to say that I’m going to feel bad when I kill you.”

  I shrugged right back at him. “Don’t. I won’t.”

  He threw his hand out there again, but this time instead of stopping him with my forearm, I caught him with the edge of the stake, more of a defensive move than offensive. It worked. He yanked it back, a trail of blood just starting to seep out.

  “And here I thought the Ravana Clan was supposed to be nicer than Dumont’s. Isn’t that why you guys are all self-righteous?”

  I peeked over to the side as if I was looking over at Dumont. “You better start fighting and stop talking because someone’s getting really pissy. He probably didn’t think I’d last this long. You might get your wrist slapped, or hung.”

  Clive’s face fell, his mask of friendly banter right along with it. He came at me with several blows—poisonous claws extended—that I blocked or had just the slightest touch of stinging grazes. At the last one, I trapped his hand, slapped it out of the way, and thrust the stake forward. I pierced the skin on his shoulder, but just barely. Enough so that he bled again, but not enough to say that I’d actually truly hurt him.

  We spun in a circle. The crowd became nosier, making it almost impossible to block out. Both of us had a lot weighing on us. If Clive won, he’d be bringing home the victory for his clan. If we won, I was ensuring our safety for at least another day until Gregor could fight.

  Clive lunged at me and I fell back, kicking out with my right leg, sending him sprawling through the air. I immediately lifted myself from the grass and spun. He landed in a crouch, a devilish smile on his face before stalking right back up to me. The last few feet he traversed in several seconds as he kicked into his vampire speed. I stepped out of the way and brought my knee up, but he was too quick. He picked my leg up, taking my base out from under me until I was flat on my back and staring up at him as he stood over me. He threw my foot to the side and tried to stomp on my face, but I rolled, then kicked out, connecting with his ankle and knocking him off balance while I got to my feet.

  The longer this was taking, the more serious Clive looked. What started as just a Sunday stroll for him was turning out to be more than what he bargained for. I could imagine what he thought of me when I first walked into the arena. One, I was a girl. Two, I wasn’t overly tall or overly muscular. I wasn’t intimidating in any way, and even though the Ravanas wouldn’t send someone out who couldn’t handle themselves, I had no doubt he was only counting down the seconds until he got whatever prize he was promised from Dumont after killing me.

  Little did he know who he was dealing with though. There were four very perfect, very beautiful reasons for me to kick this guy’s ass standing on our side, and I wasn’t going to let anything else happen.

  We came at one another at the same time. Due to his speed, he was the first to connect. My face whiplashed back after his knuckles grazed my chin. Still shaking it off, I dropped and charged, but instead of going through with the takedown, I used the sharp stake edge as a blade and sliced it against Clive’s upper thigh. He roared and came at me again. My head pounded inside my skull as I focused back on him. He kicked out at me, the bottom of his shoe coming straight for my face. I blocked it into my elbow, which may have hurt me more than it hurt him, then punctured his skin on the backside of his upper thigh with my stake.

  I yanked it out. A trickle of blood rinsed over my fingers. He placed his foot down and grinned. I knew I’d hurt him, but Clive didn’t seem like the type of fighter who was going to let it show. We traded blows for blows until he delivered rapid fire punches at me. I blocked all but one as it connected with my jaw again. I shook it off. The pain in my head intensified and so did the shooting pains up my arms from blocking. It was getting harder and harder to take his advances when my arms didn’t even want to lift in the air.

  I guessed it was time for some kicks then. I faked with a left and then switched to my good lead and threw a right. It connected with his upper thigh and he looked down, eyebrows raising a little in admiration. Well, now that my secret was out of the bag, I needed to stay in my normal stance.

  We circled again, his eyes briefly leaving mine to look off to the side. “It’s too bad it’s coming to this, girl, because it looks like you have the young princes on your side.”

  My stomach bottomed out, but I refused to take the bait even though he looked over my shoulder, almost begging me to look with him.

  No distractions, I told myself. Stay the course.

  I pretended like I was going to look, then spun into a side kick. He was already moving in when he saw me start to move so he ran right into my kick. His midsection molded around my foot for a split second before he bounced back, his lips scowling now. With a burst of energy, he ran at me. I tried to sprawl, but I was just a microsecond too late. He grabbed me around the waist and threw me to the grass, following after me and landing on top. He landed several strikes, each one jarring my head into the cement-like dirt. Pain exploded behind my head. I’d lost my breath when he’d hit me in the gut so I struggled to breathe. Being bombarded wasn’t helping at all either. He rocked me once—hard—my head lulling to the side, and I finally spotted the princes.

  My heart stopped.

  Connor was on his knees just in front of his father, his fingers threaded into his golden locks as he stared dumbstruck at me. Christian and Nicolai both had their hands in front of one another like a mother might do if she had to hit the brakes in the car fast to avoid hitting something. It was as if they were holding one another back. And Stephan, he broke my heart most of all. He was sitting cross-legged next to Connor, his head in his hands not even able to look up. He rocked back and forth, his hands practically over his ears, over his eyes, everywhere no doubt trying to block everything out like none of this was happening.

  A trickle of blood made it into my eye and I squeezed them shut. Clive must’ve opened up a gash on my forehead with all his blows. At once,
I saw all the happy times I’d shared with the princes flit through my brain. Their smiles, their laughter, and yes, every outpouring of their love. This was why I was doing this. For them. For us.

  I took Clive’s hand as it came down to assault me again and held it to my chest. Then, I trapped his ankle and bucked with all my might. I just barely made it over on top of him, taking the upper hand. I trapped one of his hands under my knee as I rolled while I brought my stake-wielding hand forward, aimed right for his heart. I was two inches away from hitting it home when the stake flew out of my hands.

  He’d stopped me.

  Moving on instinct, I punched at his hand and then picked up his head and slammed it against the ground before pulling another stake out of my waistband. His eyes rounded as he struggled to throw me off, but I had him now. I had the advantage and I wasn’t going to let him up. Connor had taught me that reversal move one day in the gym and it only seemed fitting that I take Clive out with it, not allowing him to hurt me anymore.

  He reached out as I was coming down. Instead of dodging him to go for his heart again, I moved and put the stake right through his arm, pinning it to the ground. He roared in pain, his eyes going to his new wound while I pulled a stake out of my leg holster. I leaned forward, my hand across his neck. Both of his hands were out of commission. My knee was sinking into one, and the other still had a wooden stake sticking out of it. He wasn’t going anywhere.