by E. M. Moore
My lungs burned as I ran. My feet slapped against the pavement and then felt the cool, soft grass as I ran closer to the huddle of guards near the gate station. Spotting Matthews first, I ran up to him. “What’s going on?”
“We had one in the main gate.”
When we got closer, I heard Lex barking into a walkie talkie, asking for a status. Staticked voices came on next, shouting out a number and then saying ‘All clear’. I pushed my way through the crowd until I got to her. When number ten came on and said all clear, she closed her eyes and sighed. In the next span of a second though, she was all business again. “Did someone get the doctor?”
She crouched down, and that was when I saw it—or rather him. What was left of him, anyway.
Behind me, people started shouting, but all I could see was the lifeless body on the ground at my feet. Blank eyes stared up, and blood still oozed from a neck gash. It looked like someone chewed on the guard’s neck like a puppy chew toy.
“Vampire?”
Lex looked up then. She found me and nodded. “Rogue.” She shook her head. “Son of a bitch! He’s already gone,” she said, her fingers at the pulse on his wrist.
“Who is it?” someone from the back of the crowd called out.
“Johnson,” she said, her voice dropping. She tore her shirt off and laid it over Johnson’s face.
I blinked, remembering the downright animalistic scene in front of me. Underneath her black shirt, the blood still ran down the pavement. It routed around the foot of Lex’s sneaker and it was headed straight for mine.
My stomach rolled.
She stood. “Has to be rogue,” she said. “Wounds are exactly like the other incidents in town. Stations are all clear. Singular incident.”
The crowd started to disperse as a group came forward. They were carrying a stretcher and took over the scene. I stood back, watching with Lex and Matthews, then eventually T.J. joined us. When they picked up the guard to remove him from the front gate house, we were the only ones left. Lex told Matthews to watch the front until she could find relief for him. She and T.J. then began to walk toward the security wing.
I was stuck in my head. Flashes of different scenes throughout my life kept popping in my head. My mom, the guard, Kay. I’d seen a lot of death for one person, and there was no way I was finished yet.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” T.J. said, his voice terse. “The royal family isn’t even here. Why the attack?”
“It must’ve been poised at the guards. For some reason, people don’t seem to like us right now.”
My heart thumped in my chest. It took seconds for me to even form the question because I was too scared I’d heard him right. “The royal family isn’t even here? What do you mean? Where are they?”
“They had business down South. The princes decided to join them at the last minute,” Lex explained. “We were short on guards because some went with them, and they probably knew that. This was definitely an attack on guards.”
My breaths came in shallow gasps. “The princes aren’t here?”
“No. Isabelle wanted them with her after the decision came down today.”
I stopped. When they noticed, they stopped too, only a few feet away. “The Council made a decision?”
Lex’s eyes turned down. “Any relationship between a vampire and a guard is strictly prohibited now. If it’s not about business, we can’t interact.”
I staggered back, the news—and the realization—hitting me like a punch to the gut. They’d left me here. I’d told Isabelle to keep them away from me, but I at least wanted to say goodbye.
“If it helps any, the princes were pissed.” Lex shrugged, her commander armor was in place, but there were some chinks there, too. This affected her more than she was letting on.
“God damn Checkov and his fear mongering,” T.J. seethed.
“It was Royce Michaelson,” I said, my voice almost to a whisper. “They didn’t like that thrown in their faces.”
“Yeah, like they could catch suicide just because they had a relationship with one of us.”
“It was you, too,” Lex said. “You and the princes.” She looked away, her jaw working. “From what I heard, Checkov wouldn’t shut up about that. We know he couldn't care less about the Ravanas, but he sure didn’t mind using them as a reason to help his purist cause out.”
“M-me? Why?”
“You were there. You heard,” Lex said, her voice hard. “His interrogating Stephan about why he went after you to save you. He was painting a picture for everyone about how no good could come from any kind of relationship with a guard. It played right into his hands. He had all the vamps there so scared that if they didn’t need us for protection, they’d probably start a mass deportation of us all. Wipe our memories and kick us out.
“Can they do that?”
“It would be stupid. They’d leave themselves wide open and vulnerable. These rogue vampires won’t stop at guards. No, they want chaos, and that’s what they’ll get if this shit doesn’t stop.”
She turned on her heels and walked away.
I stared after her, but T.J. gave me a half shrug. “It’s not you, Ariana. She’s been pissed at vampire politics for a long time. Working with the Ravanas, she’s had it easier than most of us. My former employees barely even spoke to me, so hey, this is no skin off my back. But for her, this is unacceptable. She’ll calm down.”
I nodded numbly. My mind racing. A dead guard. No princes. The Fort. I had to get back there. That’s what I told Isabelle I would do if they enforced this rule. I’d go back to The Fort and work my ass off. I pulled my shoulders back and stood up straighter. “I need to get back to The Fort.”
“Tomorrow,” he said. “No one’s leaving here tonight.”
I nodded and walked away. In the back of my head, I knew I should’ve asked him for a place to sleep in the guard wing. It was my place now after all, but part of me couldn’t stand the thought of it. I’d give myself this one last night to indulge in my fantasies, then tomorrow, when I went back to The Fort, I’d settle into the new norm of no Ravanas until they could change their world’s collective minds.
I stared straight ahead as I made it up both staircases. I slipped right past my door, then all of theirs—including Jake’s—and further down the second hall that led to the library. The blankets were all still in the middle of the floor. Except… I took a step back and looked down. There was something different about the way they were lying. Almost as if they had been put there for a reason, arranged there. I spotted the desk on the other side. Running toward it, I carefully avoided the arranged blankets and then hopped up.
There. I saw it now. In the middle of the floor was a blanket design of the tattoo on my upper arm. There were my blankets that made up the tulip, then there were each of theirs, turning and twisting its way around a long, thin neutral colored blanket until they led to the flower bloom. I sat down on my bottom and brought my knees to my chest.
They were still here with me, not physically, but right here, somewhere deep inside where they would always have a little piece of me no matter what happened. I smiled though the heat gathered behind my eyes. It was hard to tell myself that this was just temporary because even though I knew in my heart I’d see them again, I also knew that changing politics and governments was an uphill battle. And one I had to play my part in.
19
I was beginning to think of my life as three parts: Before Ravanas, During Ravanas, and After Ravanas.
It was three days AR, and I’d been able to keep myself relatively sane. Thanks to working out, I barely had free time to think about anything, including them. Once Samuel drove me back to The Fort, I threw myself into training. Early mornings were for the obstacle course. Then, I’d stop for breakfast, but retreat to the gym until lunch. The gym consisted of a heavy dose of weight training to try to make the strength obstacles easier for me. So far, it was working. I started timing myself on the rope climb now and was surprised to fin
d that since returning to The Fort, I’d shaved five seconds off my time getting to the top. The hardest part was turning around and remembering there was no one there to celebrate with. My chest ached when I remembered how happy Christian was to see me at the top, how he’d made me climb again just so he could get a picture to send to the rest of them. We were a unit. A family. That wasn’t happening anymore. As I said, relatively sane.
After lunch, I went for a run and then other calisthenics like jumping jacks, burpees, squats. The kind of things that were easy enough, but you still had to keep your mind on what you were doing so you didn’t hurt yourself. After dinner, I returned to my room to read the books I’d borrowed from the Ravanas’ library. The problem was, exhaustion hadn’t let me learn very much. More often than not, I’d woken up with the book on my chest or face down on the floor. Good for keeping my mind occupied, but bad for learning vampire world history.
The other trainees had taken Samuel’s idea of closing The Fort down as a literal break. There weren’t many others left on the grounds to avoid. Some had even decided to go home, but today, that would all change. Classes were back in session and not the usual ones either. According to the insight I’d been able to gain from Samuel on the drive back to The Fort, even more classes were being added to our studies. And not just physical ones either, actual classes. I balked at that when he first told me, but Samuel explained that with the way things were going, maybe a vampire-human politics class wasn’t such a bad idea. I had to admit it was eye-opening what little I’d been able to read from the Ravanas’ books. For instance, even though the Ravanas’ rule had gone back for centuries, they weren’t the first ruling family. The family before them, who sounded like a bunch of d-bags by the way, were overthrown by the Ravanas’ ancestors. It was kind of cool to read about them in books, how they’d risen up against a family that was becoming domineering and turned the course of the vampire world around forever. To think I knew someone—four someones—who descended from them. It was pretty cool. It was like knowing someone who descended from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln. These guys were the good guys, as if I already didn’t know that.
The other interesting tidbit I learned was that the idea of human guards had been put into place when the previous family had ruled. They were so scared of an uprising that they brought in human protection, like slaves, to do their bidding. When the Ravanas took over, the prestigious families were unwilling to give up their guards. They felt more secure with them around so even though they had peace, and they weren’t all that necessary, the guards stayed. The Ravanas’ ancestors instituted a rule that every vampire family could have only one guard. Over time, the guards’ positions and training changed. Now, the Rajyvik’s had taken over the guard training with an actual institution and curriculum. As with anything, the position evolved. With humans becoming more and more armed, the vampires wanted their security to be able to withstand them, which meant more than just being posted outside their houses. It meant real skills with martial arts and weapons. I wished I’d been able to find a whole book on guard history because the topic was so interesting to me. They should discuss the history of it more, but then again, if I’d grown up in this world like most everyone else here had, I’d already know this stuff.
The morning classes began again started out like any other morning. I woke up with the first rays of the sun and ran the obstacle course a few times. All evening, I’d heard more and more trainees returning to The Fort for the start of classes, but I stayed in my room, intermittently sleeping and reading until I fell into a deep slumber. The mornings were starting to get a bit cool. So, even though sweat dripped off me, the cool morning air chilled my skin, making the use of a sweatshirt right after working out necessary. I was just pulling it on as I jogged up to the main guardian building when a hand clamped down on my shoulder. Without thinking, I grabbed a hold of it, reached back to grab the person’s neck, and kicked my leg out, sending them sprawling in the air and barreling toward the ground. The ground shook when the body hit. I peered down over the person who’d tried to get me. His eyes were wide and round with shock. “J-jesus, Ariana. It’s just me.”
I blinked to bring my mind into focus. I was in fight mode, my body reacting on instinct. Some would call it paranoia, but not me. I was abducted and locked up by a fellow guard, saved Connor from holy water, and then clawed by a vampire within a span of a few weeks. And, that was just the adult stuff. That didn’t bring in the school BS that Zeke put me through. I called this being prepared, not paranoid. My body still tight like a coil ready to spring, I slowly started to relax once the figure in front of me became clearer. “What the hell, Evan?” I said, stepping back and reaching a hand out to him. “I almost took your face off.”
He allowed me to help him up, but then took a generous step back. “I see that.” He eyed me warily, but shit. I wasn’t going to apologize. You didn’t come up behind someone and surprise them like that. With the Ravanas gone, no one here should be touching me unless we were training. “You okay?” he asked, still staring at me as if I’d kicked his puppy.
I nodded. “Fine,” I said, though realizing as I said it I sounded anything but fine. “Perfectly fine.” My own voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me. A grating shiver went up my spine and I cocked my neck back and forth to work out the kinks. Even I realized I was acting strange. I looked back at him to try to make nice. “Did you go home for the little break we got?”
The more we talked, the more relaxed he became. Inadvertently, it might have been the more I started to act normal, the more the wariness started to slide away from him. Nonchalantly, he rubbed at an area on his back, and I wondered if I’d hurt him when I slammed him to the ground. Part of me was a little pleased with that fact. If I had, maybe he’d think twice about doing that to me again. I started walking away, and he fell in step next to me, though he put a foot distance between us where he normally wouldn’t have. “Yeah, I did. Got to see the family a little bit. Well, not my dad. He got called in to help the Ravanas out.”
My eyebrows rose, and my gut clenched simultaneously. I really wasn’t in the mood to talk about the princes right now, but a part of me was a little curious as to why his father was brought in. Was he there the whole time? Was it because of the gas station incident or the guard murder? “Yeah?” I asked, hoping he’d elaborate.
“Maybe you saw him,” Evan said, finally moving a little closer. His short-cropped brown hair bristled in the breeze. “He said he saw you.”
I shrugged. Not really caring about who I’d seen and didn’t see at the Ravana Estate. I had a one-track mind and I sure as hell didn’t care if I saw Evan’s father there. “There were a lot of guards. I probably did, but I couldn’t even tell you all their names.”
He seemed disappointed with that. He fretted over his lip as we walked closer and closer to the main house. It was just about breakfast. We were the only two outside at this time of morning. On any other day, it would’ve been just me.
He ran his hand through his hair and tugged on his ear. “My dad told me what happened…” He trailed off and looked at me as if he expected me to say something, but I needed more clues than that.
There were a few things his dad could’ve told him. Was it the fact that we were strictly not allowed to have relations with vampires anymore? Was it the fact that I got hurt when we were out on a scouting mission? That the princes were attacked by a holy water wielding human? Or was it that a guard died at the hands of a rogue vampire? There was just too many things going on to play “Guess the question”. I ran a hand over my forehead, feeling that familiar tension headache. I liked it better when I was the only one here. I didn’t have to worry about what to say to people or what the hell kinds of questions they were going to ask me.
“Well, anyway,” Evan said. “Dad was impressed with your fighting skills. He said you all trained together once.”
“Yeah, that part was fun,” I said, not offering up much information. I
f my trip to the Ravana family home had only been about training, I would’ve been a happy camper. Instead, too much had happened.
We walked toward the large guardian building door. As soon as we stepped inside, the smell of bacon called to me from the cafeteria. I made a bee line straight for it. Too preoccupied to hear the buzzing of voices, I stopped dead in my tracks once I saw the amount of trainees back at The Fort. There were so many. No, they didn’t all look up at me and stare, but I still felt as if I was on display. The next second, I stumbled forward when Evan ran into me from behind. He reached out and snaked a hand around my waist. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were putting the brakes on.”
I closed my eyes at his touch, my stomach roiling. It only served as a memory for those I couldn’t have. I peeled his fingers away and dropped his hand. “I’m fine.”
It wasn’t just the bacon calling me now, it was the fact that I wanted to get the hell away from Evan. I moved forward in line, not really looking at what I was loading onto my plate and then skittered off to my usual corner table. Once seated, I hung my head, staring down at my tray full of food. None of it looked appetizing. Or maybe it was me. I couldn’t deal with people today. They only served as a reminder of who should’ve been here with me, but wasn’t. Who’d left me all alone. Yes, I’d asked them to. I’d practically begged Isabelle to take them away from me if something happened, but I wasn’t prepared to not say goodbye. If we couldn’t change this stupid law, I was going to go crazy.
A hand touched my arm, and I swung around, my fork poised between the person and me. Liv jumped back, her hands in the air. “Whoa, girl.”
I froze, assessing her. She was frightened, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she looked at my weaponed hand and then back to my eyes. I dropped the fork back to the table and then ran a hand over my forehead. I needed to calm the hell down before I ended up taking someone out. “Sorry about that.”
