by E. M. Moore
“If they know where he is, I doubt they will want to come forward for fear of retribution,” the woman vampire at the end of the table said.
Gregor’s lips thinned as the thought about it. “As long as they are on our side, there is no punishment. All of us at this table remember what it was like to live under Dumont’s rule. If we don’t wish to live that way again, we all need to do something about it. This young trainee is correct. It’s not just a problem for the security team, but for everyone.” He stood from his seat and walked out to the front of the table. I moved away from the center and stood next to Stephan who briefly squeezed my hand.
Gregor stood at the front, looking straight out at the inhabited seats in front of him. Not at Lex and T.J., but at the smattering of vampires and guards who’d decided to come to today’s Council meeting. “This means you all, too. I have never closed a Council meeting. They are for everyone in our world to learn about what is going on if they wish to, but you will see none of that if Dumont takes power and stands where I am. It is up to us to fight for what is right and speak out against what is wrong. Dumont’s tactics are hurting, killing others. Do you think he will stop at humans? Or guards?” Gregor shook his head. “He never did before. I implore you all to go home and start asking questions. Call your neighbors, and friends, and family. Ask the questions no one wants to. You might not find anything out, but you definitely won’t if you don’t try. Don’t let your one contact be the thing that could’ve saved our world from the oppressive ruling of the Dumont Clan.” His stare focused on each person in the audience momentarily. I could tell where his gaze went by the posture of those he looked at. Each one sat up straighter, and I hoped, I wished, they were all getting a backbone.
Gone were the days of the guards fighting solely for the vampires’ freedom and safety. We were a team now.
Chapter Eighteen
After the Council members and audience members left, Stephan returned to the library where he’d been looking up books on how to treat Matthews, Nicolai exited in a huff right after his father’s emotional speech, and Connor jumped down from the raised platform to speak to Lex. It was just me and Christian, and Gregor and Isabelle at the table. Isabelle squeezed her husband’s hand. “This is the way,” she said, smiling at me.
Christian told his parents goodbye and then took my hand, leading me out a back door. Shadows crept across the hallway from the small wall sconces spaced every few feet. His hand tightened around mine as I asked, “What is this? I don’t remember you showing me this before.”
“It’s the secret entrance. It’s how my father always magically shows up at a Council meeting without having to go through the front doors. It’s linked to our area of the house, and—” Christian pushed open a door and a rush of diluted sunlight shone into the room. “—the canopy, we call it.”
My mouth opened as I took in my surroundings. I’d seen this room only once before during my tour of the Ravana Estate, but we’d come through the main entrance, which wasn’t quite so rain forest-like. Trees arched above us with a handful of singing birds, but beyond the leaves, I saw the same old mesh I always did when one lived around vampires. If I’d ever thought I would miss the sun by being with vampires, I was wrong. I still got it, just not with all the harmful side-effects for the men I loved. “It’s beautiful.”
He pulled me to a bench next to a small fountain of trickling water, his hand still in mine. “I realized something today.” He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them. “You’re probably a hundred times smarter than I am.”
I shook my head, laughing. Something about the canopy made my heart race. Maybe it was the chirping birds along with the soft sounds of the water pattering, but it was tranquil, yet exciting at the same time. Then again, maybe that was just the way Christian made me feel. “You’re crazy.”
“It’s true.” He pushed a few strands of hair behind my ears. “I feel like you know exactly what to do in these situations, and myself, and my father, are always floundering.”
“In a lot of ways—though you’re ancient to some—you’re still a small, fledgling sector of the world. Because you’re so reserved, so hidden, you haven’t had to deal with some of the things the human world has had to. That’s where I got my ideas from. It’s not like they magically came to me in the night. I just decided to start thinking rationally for once. Start using human tactics in this world because isn’t that what Dumont’s doing? He’s just being a bully for the sake of being a bully. So, he wants power? Well, we’re not going to give him that. We’re going to take the power he thinks he has away from him. Right now, his power is that he can fade away without being seen, but that’s not going to work too much longer. In any case, you have a lot more things I don’t have, Christian Ravana.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
I blushed. “You have the same aura your father does. When you talk, people just want to listen. You have this foundation in strength, Christian, that I don’t think you realize you have. You’re calm, level-headed, fair. You’re the perfect person to replace your father when the time comes, or to rule side-by-side with. When Gregor summed everything I’d said up at the end, it came out so much more eloquently than I put it.”
Christian squeezed my hand. “The only person I want to rule side-by-side with is you.”
My eyes widened. “Me? Are you crazy? I know we’ve been making a lot of headway, but I doubt they’ll let a guard do that any time soon.”
Christian shook his head. “I mean when you’re a vampire.”
I gasped, a short intake of breath that collected all his trust in me and dispersed it throughout my chest. There’d been so little time to think about what I was going to do after graduation. Right now, I was happy being a guard. I liked what I was doing even though I was constantly putting myself at risk. But what if I did want to be like them? What then?
“I know it’s a lot to think about, but I see you by my side, Ariana. I see you addressing The Council, using your wisdom and strength to lead us all. I see you as the peak of femininity. A woman all vampires should aspire to be. Strong and beautiful. Wise and empowered.”
“I haven’t—”
He smiled shyly. “I know you haven’t thought about it. It’s a big decision, I get it. Lots of factors.”
“A lot of factors,” I agreed. I touched his chin and grinned up at him. “I want to be with you forever. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would be the happiest if I had all of you for years and years to come. I guess the only question is when. I mean, do you want a family, Christian? Kids? What about your brothers? There’s a timeline we have to think about…”
He swallowed hard, his chest rising. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” A cold sweat started at my forehead then down the back of my skull to my neck. I stared into his blue-gray eyes and tried to relax. “I’m saying if we changed some rules, maybe we could actually have kids of our own, that were a part of us. The only way we can do that is if I’m human though.”
He shook his head. “I never… I never thought of that. For me, it’s always been that we couldn’t have kids that way, but—” He groaned. “To have a young one that’s part you and part me would be… I don’t have words for it, Ariana. You would give me that?”
I smiled, clinging to the emotion in his eyes. “I would try. Growing up, I always thought I didn’t want a family, or kids, at least. I saw what happened to those who were left behind, but this is like the perfect scenario for someone who grew up like me, Christian. What more could I ask for? You have basically immortal parents and children that would never leave each other. I mean, I think children would be immortal. Is there any evidence about what kind of child a human and a vampire make?”
Christian grinned. “They are immortal, just like their vampire parent.”
Despite myself, a glimmer of heat shone in my eyes. I hoped Christian didn’t notice, but there wasn’t anything he didn’t. “I’m fine,” I told him after he tried to
wipe the tear from my eye. “You don’t know what it’s like to have the promise that the people you love are always going to be there. Out there,” I said, gesturing outside our canopy, outside our safe little world, “it’s not like that. You wake up everyday not knowing what could happen. Life is so fragile. Here…”
Christian picked me up and set me on his lap. He pulled my hair behind my shoulders and tracked a finger across my cheek. “…you wouldn’t have to worry so much. I get it.” He pulled down on my neck so that my head rested on his. “I want to give you that life, never so much than right now.”
I sucked in a breath as I felt him hardening between us. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head in his shoulder. “There’s so much to figure out, so much to still do.”
“We’ve got time,” he said, his voice a promise. The truth rang in my chest with a ferocity I didn’t expect.
I didn’t even have to tell him I hoped he was right because somewhere inside, I knew he was. A seedling of hope started in my stomach and started to bloom. We’d defeat Dumont. I’d graduate and become a guardian while the Ravanas worked toward equal rights for guards, including the freedom for us all to be together and to do what we wanted. I didn’t know how long I’d stay human, but I’d be a guard forever. Christian said he saw me ruling with him. I’d never thought about it before. Doing something like that hadn’t even been a blip on my radar when I was who I was before, but now that I was home, now that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, I could do it. I did it just now, today, standing up in front of The Council and serving up ideas to help save our world from the clutches of a madman and I’d do it again no matter what befell this world. It wasn’t just their world anymore, it was my world too. There was no going back for me.
I kissed a trail down Christian’s neck and worked my hands up under his shirt to splay my fingers across his bare skin. He was all sinewy muscle that delighted my fingers as I explored him. I worked his shirt off and kissed down his throat to his chest before I slipped off his lap and moved lower. Christian was the only prince I’d wrapped my lips around and brought to orgasm this way. It’d been a fierce, triumphant feeling, like he was putty in my hands. Like he was at my beck and call and I could do with him what I wanted. I liked that feeling of power and strength, that knowledge that just I was good enough for him.
He leaned back and I kissed a trail down his abdomen until I got to the tops of his pants. I hovered there, teasing him by rocking back on my heels and looking up. His face was pure, strained pleasure. It was a cross between wanting to tell me I didn’t have to, but wanting me so badly all the same. I pushed my finger to my lips to quiet his worries and then worked the button through the hole in his pants, then lowered the zipper. “Someone might come in,” Christian said, his voice husky, untethered as I lowered his pants along with his boxer briefs.
“You can move quick. I have faith in you.”
I took him in my hand and felt all his hard ridges from base to tip before stroking him into my mouth. My eyes almost rolled back as I felt him inside. Before I’d met anyone I loved, I hadn’t quite understood this act. What was the purpose? But now, it meant so much to me. I buried him inside, taking all of him, along with his short breaths and unrestrained hip movements. It helped that Christian was a sight to see. He was beautifully handsome, sculpted with marble and a fierceness that I admired at the very heart of me.
His hands filtered through my hair as I took him in and out, and then played my tongue over his tip. “Oh, yes,” he breathed.
I looked up, expecting his head to have fallen back, but he was still staring at me, his gaze intent watching my motions against his skin. I took him in further, eliciting a gasp of surprise from him and a buzz of power for me. I sucked and sucked, taking him in time and time again until he was hopelessly in my clutches on the bench. His breaths came quicker, his hips moved on their own accord as I bared down, quickening the upward strokes into my mouth as Christian started to crumble in front of me. He tried to push me away as his orgasm rushed ahead, but I held on, soaking him all up as he jerked inside me. I rode his pleasure out until he was lifting me by the arms and laying me by the fountain.
His hands struggled with my jeans. “I want to bury myself so deep inside you.”
My hips moved against his until he kissed up my neck and finally, my lips. I pulled him closer, wanting all of him.
He tore away, his gaze confused. Before I could ask him if something was wrong, he angled his mouth over mine again, but pulled away just as quickly. His blue gray-eyes turned to steel. He reared back, his gaze searching me over and I followed him. “What?”
Panic clawed at my throat. Had I done something wrong? Was he not into this?
Finally, his gaze landed on my neck. He moved a strand of hair away and pulled my shirt down off my shoulder. I looked into his face and hardly recognized the person there. He was furious. “What’s wrong?” I asked again, my tone raising to another panicked level.
He met my eyes. “Who gave you this?”
His fingers dug into my neck and shoulders and I tried to look at what had gotten him so pissed off. “What is it?”
He growled. “This.”
I pulled at my own shirt, knocking his hands out of the way and stared down. There were two little teeth marks—fang marks. I closed my eyes and drifted away to the moment Nic and I shared. He’d just barely sunk his fangs into me, teasing me. “Nic,” I said, pulling my shirt back up over the marks and trying to pull away from Christian.
“Nic?” he asked, his voice rising.
“Please, Christian. What’s wrong? I thought you didn’t mind about what was going on here with all of you.”
He breathed in and out through clenched teeth, like an animal getting ready to pounce on its prey. “He marked you, Ariana. I’m going to kill him.”
He jumped off me and in a flurry of movement, dressed himself. I stood back in awe, cowering almost at this side of Christian I’d never seen before. “Marked me? What do you mean?”
His fangs slid out, coming to pointy sharp, needle-like edges that made me wince back. Without answering, he turned on his heel and ran, nothing but a blue streak the color of his shirt marked his trail. I quickly ran after him, making sure all my clothes were on correctly as I went. I couldn’t follow him, he was too fast for me, but I had an idea of where he was headed.
Marked me? He said it like it was a bad thing, but the way Nic’s fangs felt in my skin only drenched my memories in pure pleasure. It had been almost heavenly when he did it, spurring my orgasm on as soon as his fangs penetrated my skin. I’d woken up thinking about it the last few nights. Even called Nic in the middle of the night to share a few intimate moments with him over the phone, telling him I wanted him to bite me again, and just that memory, and my own touch, pushed me over the edge with Nic falling soon after.
In fact, I was going to ask Christian to do the same thing if he didn’t take the initiative to do it on his own. As far as I was concerned, they were holding out on me, and I wanted more. That still didn’t explain why Christian was so upset. If this was just a vampire kink thing, why would he be so furious with his own brother? And no matter how much I wanted to resist the feeling, “marked” didn’t seem like a title I’d want.
Chapter Nineteen
As soon as I hit the floor with our rooms, the yelling started. Stephan peeked his head around the corner, but when he saw me, he straightened. I marched right for Nic’s room, but Stephan held his hand up. “Don’t go in there.”
I gave him an incredulous look, and continued my path. The words weren’t intelligible yet, surprising since they weren’t being quiet, not at all. They were delivered in such a rapid fury that it was impossible to decipher who was saying what.
Stephan ran forward, so fast I didn’t even realized he’d made a move until he was right there next to me. “I mean it. It’s best not to get in the middle of it when those two go at it.”
Go at it? Since when had that happene
d? I’d never seen Christian and Nicolai fight before and they certainly weren’t going to fight about this. It was stupid, and private, if Christian must know. What I did with his brothers was none of his business. “This is about me and I’m taking care of it.”
I pushed the door open. Stephan sighed behind me, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Nicolai and Christian faced one another in the center of the room. Nicolai’s bedroom wasn’t as neat and tidy as some of the brothers. He gave Connor a run for his money, but Christian’s and Stephan’s were always well cleaned and everything had a place.
Nic looked past Christian to me. His face was strained, caught between guilt and nonchalance. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You didn’t mean to?” Christian argued, his anger bubbling over. “So, you didn’t mean to and that makes it okay? For fuck’s sake, Nic, you marked her.”
Stephan gasped behind me. I spun on my heel, facing him as his face went white. He looked at Nic as if he’d punched him in the stomach. Nic cursed and looked away.