by E. M. Moore
A ruddy blush crept up his cheeks and then into the shadows of his face. He sat down at the head of the table and pulled a box of Shredded Wheat toward him. “How are you feeling this morning?”
It was my turn to blush now. “Wonderful…” I hedged, not knowing how he’d take not being involved last night.
His lips peeled apart. “I bet.” He looked at the doorway and then dropped his voice to a whisper. “I think what you did was perfect. With Stephan, I mean. Not that I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get in on the action yesterday, but—”
I scoffed. “Didn’t get any action yesterday? What was that in the backseat of the Jeep, or in the dressing room?”
“Oh, right. I guess I did make out, didn’t I?”
“I’ll say,” Connor said as he came through the doorway. He kissed me on the forehead and then moved to sit in the chair opposite me. Nic tried to punch him on the way through, but Connor escaped it, chuckling to himself. “We’ll have our turns. Maybe we’ll abscond her sometime today so she won’t even see it coming.”
My eyes rounded. “Abscond me? You make it seem like a kidnap attempt. Again.”
“Oh, it’ll be better than that,” Connor promised.
Heat flooded my cheeks. He winked at me and then poured himself a bowl of Fruit Loops.
Stephan came in next. He kissed the side of my temple and sat next to me. “Which cereal do you want, Ariana?”
I smiled at his generosity, always making sure others were taken care of first before himself. I eyed my choices and pointed at the Lucky Charms box. We had cereal at The Fort, but most of it was the healthy stuff. We hardly ever had the sugary stuff, so I wanted to get my hands on it while I could. Stephan filled my bowl and poured the milk in before handing me my spoon. We all chowed down, and Christian joined us as soon as he came down the stairs. I winked at him. “Nic made breakfast.”
“I see,” he said, clearly surprised there was anything on the table.
“One of us should probably learn how to cook…” I paused for a brief moment before shouting, “Not it!”
Connor was the first to say it back, then Nic, then Stephan. Christian was the only one left staring at us as if we were crazy. “Seriously?”
Connor laughed deep in his chest. “Genius, Princess.” He turned to Christian. “Not like you have to start now.”
“Isn’t that what we have maids for?” Christian asked.
I shrugged, not loving the idea of having people serve us. When Gregor and Isabella moved on, I wanted to go maid-free, but I supposed that was a conversation for another time. “What’s the plan for today?” I asked.
Christian eyed his brothers. “Father wants to see us as soon as we get back to The Fort.”
I nodded, knowing that would happen. “I’m going to see Soren in his cell, see if I can’t get anything else out of him.”
“I really wish you would take one of us with you,” Christian said. “I know Lex will be there, but—” he squirmed in his chair, “—I’d just feel more comfortable if one of us were with you.”
“Agreed.” I looked at Nicolai. “Want to join me today?” He was the best choice considering he also liked the idea of training and becoming a guard even though his position as a prince forbade him to do such a thing. Regardless, he could still surround himself with guards for the time being until he could convince Gregor otherwise. We would have an easier time convincing Gregor of Nic’s wishes to become a guard if there wasn’t so much going on right now, if the threat wasn’t so big.
Nic nodded, sending me a thankful smile when the rest of his brothers continued to eat.
Within a half hour, we were all loaded into the Jeep and headed back toward The Fort. At the front gate, Connor scanned all our ID’s and the iron fencing swung open. The guard in the booth waved at us before looking back down at his security cameras. Connor parked the Jeep in the back of the main building. We said goodbye, and then Nic and I entered from that entrance before Christian, Stephan, and Connor made their way toward the Rajyvik main house. Once we were inside, Nic said, “Thanks for thinking of me, Ri.”
“It wasn’t entirely selfless,” I told him, pushing my shoulder into his arm. “I thought another pair of eyes and ears might be good, especially someone who’s more attuned to guardianship than the others. I need to figure out why Soren is willing to talk to me and then hopefully exploit it.”
“He probably just thinks you’re hot.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t make me regret asking you to come with me.”
He chuckled. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Unless of course T.J. will be there, then all bets are off.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “That’s probably going to be a problem because I bet he will be there. He works very closely with Lex on all this stuff. I actually don’t know why he wouldn’t be there.”
Nic’s jaw clenched. He pushed the door open for the dungeon area where they kept all the cells and stayed quiet until we’d descended halfway down the stairs. “I’ll do my best,” he ground out.
For Nic, I knew that was as good as it was going to get. I trusted that he wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice the intent though. We needed Soren to talk. If we couldn’t get him to talk, we were flying blind, which wasn’t a good scenario, but it particularly wasn’t good since we were always a step behind when it came to Dumont. We were a step behind when it came to them taking me. We were a few steps behind when it came to them trying to take over The Fort. This was the first instance in which we could have the upper-hand, and I wasn’t about to let it slip out of our grasps. If we wanted to defeat him once and for all, we needed Soren.
These thoughts floated through my mind as we made our way down the rest of the stairs. The lone light bulb shone again above the singular table in the middle of the room. T.J. sat in the chair in front of Soren, and they just stared at one another. Nic stiffened.
When Soren’s gaze flicked to me, T.J. turned. A smile lit his face when he recognized me, but when he looked beyond me and found Nicolai, his gaze narrowed. “Hey,” I said quickly, trying to diffuse the resulting tension. “I was wondering how our prisoner is doing this morning.”
“Ah,” Soren said. “The young guard missed me.”
“Don’t count on it,” T.J. said at the same time Nic almost growled.
Soren laughed. “You certainly do have a devotion of fans.” He peered behind me and then his eyes glinted as Nic and I moved into the light of the room. “Well, if it isn’t a Ravana Prince. How nice to see you young Nicolai.”
Nic scoffed. “You want to overthrow my entire family. I can’t say the same for you.”
“Overthrow?” Soren said dismissively. “More like take you out entirely. Isn’t that what your ancestor did to my family?”
“Obviously not. Dumont’s still alive. How old is he now again? Five hundred?”
“Not a day over 333, actually.”
Nic stalked forward. “And you wonder why no one wanted your family in power anymore. Times are changing. Your family is stuck in the same old purist ways. In order to keep surviving here, we had to adapt and your family refused. You say my family took you out? I say you did that to yourselves.”
“Well, since only one of us was actually alive when it happened, you won’t mind if I keep my own opinions on the topic, will you?”
“You just keep proving my point again and again.”
Soren rocked back in his chair, the front legs coming off the ground. A pale hand swiped over his chin before folding over his chest. “Tell me, Nicolai. What is it like to know that you brought this guard to your world only to die?”
Nic and T.J. both growled, but Nic charged the cell, his finger closing around the bars in a fierce grip.
“Oh,” Soren said, the chair dropping to all four feet. “Well, this is interesting.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled Nic back from the cell by the back of his shirt. I waved T.J. away from the chair and sat in his place. His gaze flicked between me
and Nicolai, scrutinizing until a deep-seated fear started to take root. Nic’s reaction may have just tipped the enemy off as to my relationship with the princes.
“Tell me, Ariana. Do you plan on becoming a vampire?”
T.J. openly laughed. “Guards don’t become vampires.” His lip curled in disgust. “Vamps like you and—” his gaze flicked toward Nic, but he didn’t say his name, “—would never condescend to make someone like us someone like you.”
Soren tapped his chin, not bothering to even look at T.J., but his gaze staying on mine instead. He leaned forward. “But let’s say that you could. Would you do it?” He paused, the question sinking into me like a dead weight. It was a question I often asked myself. If I wanted to be with the princes forever, that was literally my only option. I could be with them until I died, or I could be with them, youthful, forever. Truth be told, that was one of the only selling points. Sure, being a vampire would be cool. Superior strength and abilities, but they also led a very limited life here. At least, that was what I’d witnessed so far. They were constantly in fear of being found out, and I learned a long time ago that living your life in fear was not any way to live. “You don’t have to answer,” Soren said, getting to his feet. He clasped the bars in front of him and rested his head between two. “A word of advice though. A word to tell you all how ridiculous it is that I’m even being kept here. When you’re turned, the blood of the vampire who turned you becomes your everything. I won’t give Dumont up, because his blood is mine. I’m loyal to him only. You’re wasting your time trying to drag answers out of me because it’s literally beyond my ability to answer you truthfully.”
“So death is your option then?” T.J. asked, a dangerous hint to his voice.
Soren spared a derisive glance toward the other guard and then stared back at me. “So be sure when—if…” he shrugged. “…that you have chosen your sire appropriately. You will be bound to them for eternity.”
“And how’s Dumont for a sire?” I asked, trying to take the emphasis off me. Warning bells were going off in my head that Soren had already gleaned too much.
“He has sired many like me.”
“An army,” I said.
“I suppose you would call it that.”
“Well, I did see others in the alleyway, and then most recently at The Fort. They were all sired by Dumont? What about free will? What about—?”
“Free will? Even you do not have free will, Young One. I told you before that by them bringing you here as their guard, they’ve literally sentenced you to death.”
“I’m still standing. No one’s told me to come here and talk to you today, I did it on my own. Last night, I was at a party with my friends. That sounds an awful lot like free will to me.”
“I hope you live like that while you can. Soon, there will be no more parties. When Dumont takes over, he will let the vampires take their proper places in this world. We will feed off humans, become stalkers of the night again instead of encapsulating ourselves into small pockets throughout the world. The humans will again learn to fear us. There will be no more uprisings such as the one you dealt with yesterday. Tell me, were you the one who killed him? Did you start all this?”
I looked at T.J. who shrugged. “He probably heard Lex and I talking about it. We had to fortify the grounds last night with extra guards to make sure none of them got in.”
Soren sneered. “And you say you have free will? Stuck in The Fort, nowhere to go because you are at the whim of those who will guard you and keep you safe. When Dumont is in power, the+ humans will not dare such a thing because they will know their place as our meals.”
Nicolai’s teeth clenched. “Dumont will never be in power. We’re not going anywhere.”
“You are no closer to figuring anything out. While you waste your time here with me, he is gaining strength again. His ‘army’, as you put it, is far greater than you can even imagine. He has been dormant for hundreds of years. How do you think he spent that time? Preparing for this one moment. You’re all but dead.” His eyes flicked to me. “I did warn you. I do wish there was something I could do for you. I suppose if you let me out, I could turn you myself. You would be a prize to Dumont.”
Nicolai lunged forward again, peeling one of Soren’s hands from the bars and yanking him forward until his face smashed into the bars in front of him. Nic hissed, his fangs coming out in full force. Soren mimicked him. His fangs lengthening to needle-like points as he hissed back at Nicolai.
T.J. moved forward a second before I jumped up. The vampires all moved too fast to keep up with. He pulled Nic away. Nicolai still attempted to get Soren, nails sharpening from his fingers as he clawed the air. Soren laughed deep in his throat as my stomach bottomed out. T.J. had a hell of a time pulling Nic to the exit while I just watched, surprised by his outburst. Both of theirs actually. I’d never seen two vampires try to fight before. It set a tingle of fear down my spine. Both beasts, more agile and strong than any human. They were fierce, and the very looks on their faces cultivated a panic inside me. I stepped back, almost blown away by the outpouring of pure hatred until T.J. wrestled Nic into the other room. I knew I should help. Nic didn’t like T.J. under the best of circumstances and this was bound to piss him off more, but I was stunned.
“The offer stands,” Soren said, his eyes still bloodshot as he stared at me. His pupils were thin slits but regaining normalcy by the second.
“I’ll pass,” I said, my voice hard.
I turned to walk toward the exit when Soren chuckled. I spun toward him, done with all the games and word puzzles. “What?”
“He is not long for this world, Young One. Better to pick a different sire.”
I swallowed, my throat like sandpaper. I turned and walked as fast as I could from the room, hoping it didn’t look like fleeing, which was all I could think about. How had Soren been so easily able to connect the dots? There was something different about him. Something almost human in his reactions, yet so vampire in others. He was a mystery, which just made this task all the more difficult. He said he wouldn’t give up his sire, but I needed him to. I just had to figure out how to get him to do it. Otherwise, his last threat was probably right. Nicolai—along with the rest of my princes—probably weren’t long for this world. And that very thought, froze me to my core.
10
Sounds of a scuffle met my ears when I passed through the doorway. I immediately lunged forward and pulled T.J. and Nicolai apart. “Enough!” I said.
They both retreated to opposite sides of the hall. Nicolai wiped his chin while T.J.’s hands clenched at his sides. His gaze narrowed at the prince. I tried to tell them both to calm down again, but T.J. barreled ahead. “What the hell was that? You can’t go after our prisoner. One, we need him. Two, if your ass gets injured, it’s on me. Not that I would care.”
I sucked in a breath, realizing T.J. had pretty much just committed treason right there, whether he meant it or not. Nicolai’s gaze narrowed, but he didn’t call him out on it. He wasn’t the type to do that kind of thing. Slowly, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and regained his composure. “It was just a pissing contest between two vampires.”
Footsteps thundered down the stairs, and Lex, her eyes wide and worried ran into view. “What the hell’s going on down here?” She took in the sight of T.J. and Nicolai and sighed. “Can’t you two knock it off? We have more important things to worry about.” Her eyes found me and she stopped short. “You were talking to Soren again? Did you get anything out of him?”
I blew out a breath, looking at Nic and T.J. to make sure they would behave themselves. “Not too much of anything.”
“Yeah because this one decided he was going to lunge at him,” T.J. said.
Nic shrugged. “I don’t like others talking about my guard.”
“She’s not your guard yet, Prince.”
Nic’s lips started to pull back, so I stepped forward. “I didn’t realize what he said about becoming a vampire was true. Tha
t you’re loyal to your sire. How are we ever supposed to get him to talk if it’s virtually impossible for him to defy Dumont?”
I looked at Nic, pleading with him. He let his guard down and shrugged. “It’s like that and it’s not. Yes, whoever turns you fosters a love inside you. That’s how even when children are taken away from their human lives under perfectly normal circumstances, they still go through the process of becoming a vampire well. Well,” he locked eyes with me. “I’ve only seen one who rejected it. Those cases are rare. Maybe even one in a million.”
My stomach churned as I thought about my late best friend. His absence here would always haunt me along with the questions of ‘why’. Why didn’t he make it when everyone else had? I pulled my shoulders back. “So, it basically transfers the love from one to the other?”
“In essence,” Nic said. “You’d have to ask Isabelle for more in-depth information. I only have the basics.”
“He does seem particularly interested in Ariana,” T.J. said, finally shaking off the remnants of his spat with Nic. “At first, I thought it was just because of Nic’s responses to his threats. Soren likes to get under others’ skin, but it seems more than that. He seemed genuinely curious as to whether or not Ariana was going to become a vampire, even though there’s no way she could. He seemed earnest in wanting to tell her about what would happen, even telling her he would turn her himself. What would drive him to do that?”
I shook my head, a thousand different thoughts flickering through my head. I paused, a niggle of an idea starting to take shape. I spoke aloud, the thoughts coming together as words passed my lips unfiltered. “We need him on our side. He says he’s loyal to Dumont so there’s no way he can give us the information we seek. What if we looked into his human life to see if there’s anything we could use? He kept saying sire when he referenced Dumont, and being loyal to him. He didn’t say anything about being family or being loved. Maybe that’s what we could make him see?”
