by E. M. Moore
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
“But you’re not hurt?”
“A little banged up, but I’ll live. I don’t know if I can say that for my guardian friend.” I blew out a breath. “They know you gave their location away. The vampire said as soon as the bomb went off, Dumont would know you told them.”
Soren nodded. “I knew they would find out. Do you know who the vampire was that set the bomb off?”
I shrugged. “Funny thing is, I’m not sure he set it off. I killed him before he had a chance, but all of a sudden, it started counting down.”
“Dumont was probably listening in. There was a second detonator nearby and he gave the signal.” I ran my hands through my hair and dropped my head in my hands. He reached out, but brought his hand back. “You carry a lot on your shoulders, Young One.”
“I have a lot to fight for.”
He slid to the floor and sat back against the cement wall. “I remember when I felt the same way. He won’t stop, you know.”
“I hope he doesn’t because when we take him out, it’s going to feel that much better.” I scuffed my foot against the cement. “You are going to tell me everything you know, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “And you’re still trying to help me?”
“I told you I would.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “It’s kind of nice thinking I could live a life like yours. Not the fighting part, but the living free part. Maybe if I get out of here, I’ll move to the Amazon and live in a hut.”
“Yeah? How would you feed?”
He shrugged. “Hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. Okay, maybe not that far out, but I want to live somewhere nice and peaceful. Somewhere where I won’t have to think about any of this, or even you, again. No offense.”
“None taken. I know the feeling.”
Wasn’t that what life was about? Finding your little bits of happiness and not giving up on them when you did?
I hoped he did find his place. Deep down inside, Soren was a good person who’d been warped by centuries of mindfuck. If he could recover from this and walk away, it would be another victory for us, another disentanglement of Dumont’s stranglehold on the unsuspecting.
“Why’d you tell me where Dumont was? Why are you helping us now?”
He pulled his legs up to his chest and laid his head down on his knees. “I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.”
“I guess I kind of do. I just mean why me? Why do it for me? Why ask for me?”
Soren closed his eyes. “Have you noticed that people are just drawn to you? It’s not just that prince of yours, but it’s the guard who keeps talking about killing me. And the woman, they both speak highly of you. Even Ravana and his other prince, they were just in here talking about what they would do if they lost you. I read people well, and from the moment I met you, I knew you were different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s just something about you, the way you act, the way you care, the way you talk that just makes others want to believe in you. At first, you were too much like Dumont for my taste.”
I gasped, the pleasure I felt from his praise erased as soon as he said those words. I was nothing like Dumont. How could he even—?
“But you’re not,” he quickly added. “Dumont has a way of getting others to follow him, but you don’t want people to follow you. You want people to stand by you. That’s a big difference, Young One. One you should remember, too. Followers don’t bring you anything but servants. Those who will just roll over and do whatever you want. But equals, those who stand next to you, they bring you people who are willing to fight for you even if it’s in a way you wouldn’t suspect.”
I nodded as he spoke, the truth hitting me right in the core. It was one of the reasons why I knew the Ravanas should be the ones in power. They were open-minded, and fair. They didn’t discriminate or pass down harsh judgments without cause. We’d already started the steps of having the guards be more involved, and the princes and I had started to try to get both sides to come together, not just in politics, but in social situations, too. If we were going to win this, we were going to do it together, the vampires and guards united. And I had just the idea to get the ball rolling…
Chapter Seventeen
I tucked my hair behind my ears and matched Christian stride for stride as we made our way to the Council meeting room. The last time I’d been here hadn’t gone that well for me, or the rest of the guards, but today would be different.
I had a plan.
At least the start of one. A damn good start to one. I reached out to squeeze Christian’s hand and then brought my fingers back, the tips tingling with his touch. He arched an eyebrow at me. “What was that for?”
For being you. That was too girly of a thing to say at the moment though. I was a few minutes out from addressing The Council as a nobody. Sure, I’d gotten a medal and behaved honorably, blah, blah, blah, but there was still all that pesky prejudice about guards. Dwindling or not, there were people like Philippe Checkov out there. Who knew if anyone would even hear me out? I could just end up being the butt of everybody’s jokes for the next century. Stupid vampires and their immortality.
I breathed out and smiled at him. “For sticking your neck out for me.”
His lips thinned as he regarded me. I hadn’t told him my ideas, and he actually didn’t look all that nervous that I hadn’t. I wanted my plan to be fresh and new in everybody’s eyes so we could build on the foundation from there. “I trust you, Ariana. You say you got a plan that’ll work, and I believe you. You’ve got just as much at stake as the rest of us.” He turned away. “Even more.”
The recent events had only served to make Christian that much more serious. He kept a damper on it when he was around me. He was just Christian then. He wasn’t Christian Ravana, next in line to rule The Council. “What do you mean?”
He tucked his hands in the pockets of his pants and shrugged. “I guess what Nicolai’s been saying is getting to me. How unfair it all is. We’re sending you guards out there to die when this is a vampire problem. I mean, Matthews…” He trailed off, his face pained.
I couldn’t help but be struck again on what a great leader Christian would make. He felt for his people, even those the majority of his kind felt were lesser than. “Matthews did what he did because he wanted to. The more you try and separate us, the worse off it will be. We need to work together—all of us. We’re all in this world for better or for worse. You’ve already let some of the guards out who wanted it. If anyone wants out of this life, I say let them. But the people who are still here, especially ones like Matthews, are here because they want to be. We’re not fighting your fight. We’re fighting our fight.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You should’ve saved that for The Council.”
I chuckled. “It was pretty good, wasn’t it? I’m sure I can replicate it. Just wait until I get started.”
“I have no doubt you’ll amaze me like you always do.”
I stopped in the middle of the hall leading to the Council room. So in tune with me, Christian stopped and waited at the very same time. His cheeks flushed, and he looked to the floor. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. I swallowed the sudden dryness in my throat and tried to squelch the urge to rise up onto my tiptoes and kiss him. For that moment, he was a magnet and I was metal, wanting nothing more than to cling to him, to feel his arms wrap around me.
“Don’t look at me like that right now.” He looked down again and shuffled his feet. “It’s like torture.”
I lifted my hands to my cheeks and felt the heat blazing from my skin. I rubbed them briefly and then followed the line of my chin to rest my hands at the back of my neck. “Sorry?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Come on, we’ll be late.”
He opened the door at the end of the hall for me and like last time, my feet were like cement bricks as we walked in, as if my whole body was trying to tell me I didn’t belon
g here. I probably didn’t, but I was doing it anyway. It took me a while to realize the vampires in this world hadn’t really gone through anything like this either. Gregor and his Council were just grasping at straws on what to do. They had to deal with outside forces, humans mostly, who might threaten their way of living, but it had been a long, long time since they had to make changes within their realm. When I realized they were newbies at this too, a whole new thought process started to open up. We—any of us—shouldn’t sit back and wait to take direction, we needed to take action. Gregor was doing his part by putting Lex in charge, but we needed something more than that too. A plan that didn’t just involve security tactics.
I just hope this worked.
The room felt the same when we walked in. Old world meeting new world in a way that just worked seamlessly. A heaviness hung over us as Christian and I walked down the aisle. The council members were already at their seats in the front. The old vamp Checkov whom I was pretty sure hated me from our last run-in wasn’t there. His chair sat empty and I looked up at Christian who seemed to be eyeing it to. The audience seats in the Council room were all but bare, not like the last time I’d been here when there’d barely been a seat to be had. The meeting was short-notice, but I hoped this wasn’t a sign about how my plans would be treated.
When I looked up again, I noticed Gregor and the other vampires who’d been on The Council before, including Isabelle, staring at me. Joining them now were my princes. Christian walked past all of them and took the seat next to his father. He’d left me by the first row which held Lex and T.J.. They scooted over so I could sit down next to them. Gregor shook his head and beckoned me forward.
I stood on shaky legs and took the couple of steps to the raised platform where the long table sat in the center. The chair my princes had sat in one-by-one the last time we were here was gone. Next to the empty space sat Stephan at the very end who smiled at me, then Connor, who looked amused, Nicolai whose arms were crossed over his chest, then Christian, and finally Gregor. All in a row like charming, handsome sentinels. The sight of them almost took my breath away. When I’d seen them for the first time, I thought they were intimidating and powerful. They still were, just in a less frightening way. If I didn’t know them, I’d wonder why Nicolai looked as if he was angry with me, or what Connor thought was so funny, or why Stephan’s smile made me uneasy. They were vampires after all, and I was just a mere human brought into this world to be their puppet.
That was so far from the truth though. So very, very far.
Gregor leaned over the table when I got there. His sleek hair was properly gelled into place like usual. His not even middle-aged looks were so profound, so filled with wisdom, that whenever I looked at him, I felt his air of superiority. It was palpable in the room. We did as he said. It was as simple as that. “Philippe’s not coming. You may start.”
I swallowed, and stood up straight, staring at the rest of the line of vampires at the table. At that moment, with all eyes on me, it hit me. This was a crazy ridiculous scene no one would believe. A room filled with vampires and their human guards. If I went back to the human world with a story like this, everyone I met would think I was insane. They would literally lock me up in a psychiatric institute. But yet, I’d never felt more alive here. This was my home. This was my life now, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I lowered my head. “Members of the Council…” I turned on a whim and bowed my head toward Lex and T.J.. “Members of the security team. I thank you all for coming here today. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, I am Ariana Stuart, trainee at the Rajyvik Institute.”
The woman vampire at the end of the table laughed. “We know who you are Ariana. Your name has quickly spread throughout our community. I bet you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know you.”
I forced out a nervous chuckle and continued. I couldn’t tell if being well known was a good thing or a bad thing. “I won’t bore you with details and we’ll get right down to what I wanted to talk to you all about then. Our prisoner from the attack on The Fort has found it necessary to speak only to me, which led to our decision to raid a factory in Calcutta a couple days ago. Though we’re all aware how that turned out, leading to an injury of one of our most respected guards, we were able to glean information from that and I’d like to take it a step further.” I walked back and forth in front of the table, making sure to lock eyes with Lex and T.J. every once in a while. The other vampires strewn throughout the room, however, I completely ignored. “Soren, our prisoner, has given me the locations of all possible places Dumont could be. I’ve shared those locations with our security team who are now cross analyzing that information with the number of human disappearances in the area, and even crime and homicides, so we can make our best guess as to where he is.”
“How’s that going?” Gregor asked.
He looked at me and I looked back at Lex. She stood. “Well, Sir, since Matthews is unavailable at the moment, we’ve had to use some trainees to do the work so it started out a little slow, but we’re making headway now. It was a brilliant idea Stuart had. I only wish we had Matthews’ tech savvy abilities at our disposal.”
“I can help.”
All eyes turned toward the table. I knew who’d spoken before even looking that way. I’d recognize his voice anywhere, but still, the surprise rocked me when I looked at Connor. The grin was gone from his face. His eyebrows were pulled down, serious and astute, as he leaned across the table, his hands clasped in front of him.
Connor did have tech skills. He’d helped during the attacks on The Fort, being our tech guy for that mission, but I had no idea he’d ever thought about doing it since them. Lex looked at Gregor, unsurprisingly unwilling to accept his offer without confirmation first. Gregor leaned over and locked eyes with his son. He nodded, then looked back at Lex. “Connor will help you with anything you need on that front.”
My eyes immediately flicked to Nicolai. The muscles in his forearms bulged as if he were clenching his hands into fists, but you’d never know it from looking at his face. It was just as dark and intimidating as it ever was, without the feeling of being betrayed behind it.
“Thank you both,” Lex said. “I will speak to Connor after the meeting.”
She looked at me and I continued on. “Though we have that information to begin with, I don’t think we should stop there. It has been years, even centuries, since anything like this has happened to your world, and there is so much more available for our use in this instance to track him down.” I looked each Council member in the eye. “It may seem like an…interesting idea at first, but I believe you will find it sound once I give you the particulars.” I took a deep breath and launched forward, trying not to get caught up in my own head. “Because of where I come from, I have a different perspective and a different way of thinking in regards to finding Dumont. If there was someone who was wanted for crimes out there, out in the human world, it would be plastered all over the news. By keeping this just a vampire problem, we’re blocking ourselves from using true search techniques. Dumont is a purist. He feeds from humans, which also means there’s no way he’s going to go around the country one-hundred percent undetected. At this point, I can tell you that the list of locations where he could be are strewn all across the United States, and even a couple places in Europe. Because of this, I think we should start a massive search for him and utilize outside factors. We should use search techniques the way humans do. Can we get his face on wanted posters? Can we get him on news stations? He has killed and murdered humans. We can utilize this to our advantage. The first step could be working with human law enforcement. Do we have any contacts in the human police world?”
Gregor shook his head, and then looked down the line. Each of them in turn also shook their heads.
I shrugged. “That’s okay. We still have other options.”
“We could make a Facebook post,” Christian suggested. “We can try to get it to go viral.”<
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Gregor’s brows furrowed. “Facebook?”
I suppressed a laugh, smashing my lips together at Gregor’s confusion. “Excellent idea. We can use the power of social media to reach people all over the place. That’s just one part of the plan though. We have to get everybody here working together too. Let’s be open and honest about what it will mean if Dumont is able to gain control over The Council. Let’s spread the word to the outlying clans about what a change like this would mean. If we got everyone working together on our side, we would be unstoppable. What if every clan kept their eyes and ears open for information? This isn’t just a Ravana Clan problem, this is a vampire world problem. If they like the way they live now, they should want to help keep it that way. Even if they like to keep to themselves, that’s even better. What will Dumont do to those clans who don’t want to be that involved?” I looked around at everyone’s mute faces. “You’re going to have to help me out because I wasn’t here when Dumont was in charge.”
“You’re talking about spreading propaganda,” Christian said, his head tilted as he looked at me.
I didn’t like the negative connotation to that word, but I guess I was. “I just think we all need to see that if Dumont takes over The Council, if Dumont succeeds in killing off the Ravana Clan like he wants to, more things are going to change then what initially gets talked about. This will impact everyone, and since it will impact everyone, everyone should be involved in it. I think all it will take is for word to spread on what a Dumont leadership will mean for others. We should all be rallying together as equals. It’s not just the guards who have something to fight for in this, it’s the vampires too, and not just the ones who regularly come to Council meetings either.”
Gregor sat back and crossed his arms. I peeked briefly at Nicolai and then did a double take. They might not have been family in the human sense, borne from one another, but their look, their gestures were the same. There were more things that made people family than just blood and DNA. “I had never thought of this type of wide-scale attack on Dumont.” He tapped his lips with his pointer finger. “It’s brilliant. There is no way Dumont’s army would’ve gone unnoticed for all this time. He would’ve had to build this up over the past few centuries just to become big enough to launch an attack against us. Why cannot we do the same thing? I will reach out to the clans to beg for their assistance as soon as possible.” He looked down the line, his eyes lingering on Isabelle the longest, but then further as he gazed at every member of The Council. “I will implore all of you to do as Miss Stuart says. We all have friends and families in the farthest reaches. Perhaps they have heard something of Dumont over the centuries that we can use to figure out where he is. Perhaps even some know where he is—”