The Ravana Clan Vampires: a Young Adult Paranormal Romance (Complete Series)

by E. M. Moore

  Finally, Connor kissed my neck. “Aren’t you going to ask me about the other names?”

  I took his hand, intertwining my fingers with his and then kissed the closest piece of available skin—his forearm. Goosebumps spread over his arm, and I hugged him tight to me. “I have a feeling I know.”

  “You do?”

  I closed my eyes, knowing this would be difficult for Connor to talk about. “I’m not saying they’re going to choose me, but I don’t think it’s too cocky to say I’m sure my name has been brought up.”

  He froze, his body locking up. I felt it all the way in my core. Rubbing his skin, I tried to soothe him. He breathed out, his hot breath caressing my neck. “Yes, your name was mentioned. A few times. More than a few times, and each time I thought Christian was going to come out of his skin.”

  “He has to realize…”

  “He does, but that doesn’t mean he, or any of us, have to like it. Just remember how you felt when Nicolai left us.”

  “That was a low blow,” I grumbled.

  He stifled a laugh into my arm and then moved my hair away from my ear to place a light kiss there. “Just pointing out the obvious, Princess. Just because we know you’re a possibility doesn’t mean we have to like it.”

  “But you won’t interfere, will you?”

  “I won’t,” he said. He hugged me tighter from behind, his fingers pressing into my skin, deepening the touch so I didn’t just feel the physical touch of it, but the pure emotion behind it. His fear, his pride, his…sadness.

  I turned toward him, my hands landing on his shoulders as my leg wound around his. “I love you, Connor Ravana. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that our love has gotten us this far, why wouldn’t it take us all the way to the end?”

  His fingers curled into my sides, his pinky just barely grazing the patch of skin between my shirt and jeans. “If anything happens—”

  I pressed my mouth to his, silencing whatever vow he was about to make. Maybe Soren was right. How could he help if we already thought we would lose? Then again, what if I was right? Wasn’t it still okay to make arrangements? Preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. I poured every last mixed emotion into my kiss. I seared the memory of my lips into his and vice versa in case that was what we needed. I relished in him. I tasted Connor like it was the first time I’d had the chance. He was sweet, and funny, and the most human out of all my princes. I could just as soon see Connor at a frat party as I could at a Council meeting. He was that relatable, and in his averageness, there was something so special.

  I deepened the kiss, breathing into him the life he’d given me. He growled deep in his throat, but in the next instant, he pushed me away. “If anything happens—”

  “Nothing’s going to happen,” I assured him, looking deep into his blue eyes that were filled to the brim with love. Love for me. The stormy seas were almost a memory and I pleaded with him silently to give in, to this moment, to these feelings because that was what I needed right now, and whether he realized it or not, it was what he needed too.

  With a half growl, half grunt, he forced me on my back, pulling my legs up around his waist so I felt the pressure of his thickness between us. I inhaled sharply, a blaze of heat already consuming me. I pitched my hips up to meet his, and his resolve crumbled in an instant. His lips were on mine, needy and all-consuming. His fingers dug under my shirt, kneading into my skin before letting go to peel the piece of clothing off of me. He took only half a second to stare down at me in awe before dropping his head to kiss his way up my abdomen to my bra line where he followed the curve up my chest until I was breathless and squirming beneath him.

  “Oh, Connor.”

  He reached behind, unclasping my bra deftly before pulling it down and allowing himself a taste of my sensitive skin. He clamped his mouth over my nipple and suckled until my toes curled into the bed. He was hardening and lengthening between us, only driving me crazier. I pulled at his shirt and our remaining clothes until it was just us, skin-to-skin, the remnants of everyday life cast aside until there was just what mattered. I cupped his face, telling him with my eyes what I knew deep, deep down. The love we shared would never destroy us. It wasn’t possible. Soren was wrong. Our love would never send me to my death. It just wasn’t possible. That didn’t mean I would escape it, it just meant that our love was there for only the truest of reasons. I didn’t know everything, but I did know that.

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and then down as if he’d heard me as clear as if I’d spoken aloud. “I love you.”

  He eased himself inside me, each of us melding into one another. He started out slow, but my fingers dug into him, egging him on. “Show me. Show me the way you want to show me.”

  His eyes sparked as if I’d challenged him. I pressed my hips into his in response and he smirked. His arms locked out, he bared down into me, his hips connecting with mine with a sudden jolt. I gasped at the pressure, and the pleasure. He did it again, but this time, there was no smile when I cried out. He did it again, and again, pumping inside me as fast as he could, his hyper agility in full force so that my pleasure lengthened and never stopped. I came quick, and hard. My insides tightening around him, but Connor only focused further. His eyes set in concentration as his hips moved with the same ferocity as when he started. Biting my lip, I tried to match him. He worked me until my bones felt like jelly and the only thing I could concentrate on was the awareness of him between my legs, driving me higher and higher again with each thrust.

  “God, yes, Connor,” I finally said, reveling in the appreciation he took of me. Already I was climbing toward orgasm again, and watching him only heightened my pleasure.

  I wound my hands around the back of his neck and held on. His blue eyes rammed into mine with utter fullness that I started to break apart again. This one more drawn out than the last. My fingers dug into his neck as the first wave hit. I cried out, my eyes widening as the sensations scorched my insides. Connor trembled, and then he was right there with me. His face contorted into a beautiful mask of relief before he sunk into me again and again, his hardness convulsing inside me.

  Breathless, he fell on top of me and I wound my arms around him, holding him to me as his orgasm subsided. His warring breaths pounded against my chest as if I could feel his heart coming out of his skin. I buried myself into him, tipping my chin and gripping onto him with everything I had in me. If anything happened, oh God, I would miss this… Being close to another being again. I remembered what it was like to have my mom hug me, and Jake. But after that, there wasn’t anyone really. Not until my princes.

  Connor moved us to our sides, me still trying to keep my face hidden, not wanting to let him go for anything. He made small circles on my back with his fingers. “Nothing’s going to happen. I promise.”

  And I’d made the same promise, but the truth was, that really wasn’t something we could promise to one another, was it? I could get chosen. And if chosen, I sure as hell wouldn’t pass it up. It was my duty after all, to keep the Ravanas safe. I would enter that arena. I would fight. I would listen as the songs rose up around me and collided with one another as I stalked the enemy. I would try to win, but that was the thing of it…try. I couldn’t promise I would come out the other side unscathed no matter how much I wanted to.

  4

  Christian

  “This is asinine. You can no more send her out there than you could send me, your own son!”

  Mother put her hand on my shoulder as I tried to regroup. My hands shook, my whole body didn’t even seem my own. When they mentioned her name at the meeting, I saw red. I’d blanked out completely. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they would mention her, but surely there were others to send. If there weren’t, what had we done, my brothers and I? Fallen in love with a girl only to send her to her death?

  “You may very well have thought of that before you brought her into this world in the first place, Christian!”my father seethed. He struck me
as a cookie cutter replacement of Nicolai then. So much stress, pent up rage, and a deep belief in their heart that they could do better. Always warring within themselves that they could be better. My mother tried to reach out for him, but he pulled away and walked around the other side of the Council room table. I knew he had many other things on his mind. Checkov, for one. He’d managed to not show up for the Council meeting, only leaving us with the reality that his loyalty had changed. He’d left us and went to the enemy.

  My thoughts jumbled over themselves. This wasn’t my father’s fault. He’d done nothing to deserve my bitterness, but he was going to get it anyway because when you were fighting for someone you loved, you didn’t just roll over at the first opposition. That wasn’t even an option. “We didn’t have a choice.”

  “As your mother reminds me daily,” he said, throwing his hands up in disgust. “’They had to know her’, she tells me. ‘They had to do what was best for them.’ One day you will be in charge of all this, and then what, Christian? We cannot show favorites. We cannot bend the laws to work them in our favor. Isn’t that why we’re here in the first place? Because that’s exactly the type of leader Dumont is!”

  I stifled the rage inside me, clamping it down by gnashing my teeth together. I turned, my hands digging into the chair back in front of me. I could feel my teeth try to puncture my gums. I struggled against my nature, hoping to calm myself before I faced him again.

  “They did not break any laws, Gregor,” Isabelle said, speaking for the first time. “They brought her here in the only way they knew how, which was as a guard. They didn’t turn her without her, or the Council’s, consent.”

  Gregor turned sad eyes toward her. “You are only making my point for me, my love. They brought her here as a guardian and, as such, is capable, fully capable, of accepting this task if Lex and Samuel should choose her to fight for us. What would you both have me do? Secret her away? With all of you as well? Don’t you think in my heart I would have it that way? But what about showing our people what we stand for? If you all run away, what kind of message does it give to those who stand with me?”

  I closed my eyes. I didn’t disagree with him. In fact, I agreed with him with every fiber of my being. But as a lover, as someone who cared about someone more than my own self, I wanted her as far away from here as possible. I wasn’t thinking rationally, and I knew it.

  “There is nothing to be done,” Gregor said. His voice evened out. His steps moved closer to mine, and a heavy hand fell on my shoulders. “I am truly sorry, Son. I don’t want any more people to die than already have. I have come to care for Ariana as well. She is exactly what we need as we move into this next phase if we win. But, so aren’t all the other names mentioned earlier. Isn’t T.J., and Lex, and Samuel, and Zeke, and Peter and Luke’s lives as equally as worth living? What of their families? If they could, they would be by my side in an instant pleading their case as you have done, but my answer would be the same. If chosen, we have given them a great honor and great responsibility. Win or lose, they will be admired in our present, and in our future. All we can do for them now is pray for their strength, and for their mind, and for their will so that it might be stronger than their opponent that day.” He cleared his throat. “Just go be with her, my son. While you have the chance.”

  His hand squeezed my shoulder before his footsteps took him from the room. Mother was there in an instant, taking my face in her long, slender fingers. Where Father always held true to his rules, Mother was right behind him with a comforting word. It had been that way since we were children. They loved us in their own way, and that didn’t change even though Father didn’t give me what I wanted. I knew that if he could, he would.

  “He is very tired, Christian. Very tired. Checkov leaving—”

  “I know,” I said. I never cared for the man, but he had been with my father for many years. To know that he was against him all this time must have been breaking my father from the inside out.

  “Ariana is very strong.”

  “I don’t doubt her skills, or strength. But she can only be as good as she can be. The other fighter might be better.”

  “Or they might be worse. I know you’ve always felt my feelings to be absurd.”

  “That’s not…” I shook my head, but she already had her hand held out to stop my next thought.

  “I don’t care that you don’t believe in it. I do.” She cupped my chin. “Everything will be fine.”

  She smiled, and I couldn’t help but follow suit. Her emotions cut into me unlike any other.

  “We understand how much Ariana means to all of you, and as your father said, she means a great deal to us as well. I’ve come to think of her as a daughter, Christian. Unless I’ve read everything wrong, I believe she may very well be my actual daughter one day.” She lifted her eyebrows to look at me, and I felt my face turn red, which only deepened her smile. “I’m not just speaking lightly here. Everything will work out fine. She will be safe. You can count on it.”

  My mother walked from the room, her dress just barely whispering across the floor as she exited through the Council room to the main estate. I swallowed the thick clog of failure that had been working its way up my throat. It was a last resort. One desperate plea to ensure Ariana’s safety. On one hand, I knew it wouldn’t work, but on the other, I just had to try. I fell into the chair and laid my head on the wood table, grasping onto hope with one outstretched hand. It was what Ariana was always talking about. That if we had hope, we had something. It was much better than fear, or sadness, or worse, pitying oneself.

  Where there was an Ariana, that was one thing I would always have, hope.

  She’d lifted my brothers up before she even knew we existed, and she kept doing it now, falling for us one right after the other until we were one unit, a family. Yes, hope was one thing I would always have when I had her. She was like a bright, shining star, glimmering in the distance just for us.

  5

  Four princes in my bed. A girl could get used to this.

  Connor was there first, of course, but they all showed up over the course of a few hours, Christian last. One by one, they snuggled in, their heads either next to mine on the pillows or near my hips, their hands cradling my thighs or calves, or resting against my breast—Nicolai. None of us said a word as we allowed the others to join us, making room in this world that was ours, and ours alone. We judged time by the noise level of the crowd beneath my window and the darkening of the room.

  As if by some predetermined understanding, we all sat up at the same time. I took them in one right after the other. Nicolai, his features surprisingly dark and sad as he looked at me, and then looked away. Stephan, his stunning emerald eyes catching me in his grasp and almost refusing to let me go. Connor, his tilted, wary smile made that much more perfect in his attempt to be happy for me. Then, Christian, his serious demeanor almost wistful, sad as we looked at one another.

  At times, I thought he was the strongest, but like many strong-willed men, they usually had a kryptonite, something that could bring them to their knees in an instant. I hated that I was that for him. It made me push off the bed and stop wallowing. “Your father needs training. I’m not saying it’s going to come down to that, but if it does…”

  “Already on it,” Nicolai said. “Dad and I met up in the training room earlier to go through some things. He’s actually not as bad as you might think.” Connor raised his eyebrows at his brother, but Nicolai ignored him. “He’s quick. That’s going to be his strength. If we can capitalize on that…” Nicolai shrugged, leaving his comment hanging there. I was sure every one of us in the room finished that sentence in our own way. For me, it was ‘If we can capitalize on that, he might not die.’ But in reality, I was hoping it wouldn’t come down to that.

  “Great,” I said. “T.J.—”

  “T.J. and Soren were in the training rooms when we were in there. Soren was very helpful. I took notes, in case…”

  A cold shiver r
an down my spine. In case I needed it… “Good idea. When will the rest of the fighters be chosen? No matter who they are, they’ll have to be prepped. The sooner we know, the better. Soren’s agreed to help out. We can take advantage of that.”

  The princes looked around at one another until we were finally all staring at Christian. He sighed. “Soon, I think. Lex and Samuel are making the final decisions and they went off by themselves after the meeting. I wouldn’t be surprised if they already know.”

  The fist tightened the knot in my stomach again, turning it and turning it. “Okay. So, we’re good on that front. What else do we need to do?”

  After a few moments of us looking at one another, Connor raised his hands in defense. “Don’t look at me, I was making the princess happy.”

  Nicolai rolled his eyes. A shadow passed over Christian’s face, and Stephan just shook his head. He stepped forward a little. “I set up a triage tent. In case…”

  I smiled at him. “Great idea, Stephan. Just because we’re going to win every fight doesn’t mean the fighters aren’t going to be injured. Good thinking.”

  His cheek bones turned a ruddy red.

  “Actually, Ri,” Nicolai said, interrupting the moment. “We only need to win the first three. Best out of four. We win the first three, no need for the fourth fight.”

  A new excitement spread out over my limbs. I hadn’t thought about that. If we won the first three fights, we could spare the fourth fighter. On both sides. And the thought of sending in Gregor would be a bad memory on top of that. “I’m sure they know this, but in case anyone asks, we need our best three fighters at the top of the lineup. T.J. is a great start. He’s the best besides Lex.”

  “Then Lex will probably be next,” Nic suggested. “I mean, I don’t really know, but that’s how I would do it. The others are up in the air as far as I could tell at the meeting. T.J. and Lex are the best. The others are…negotiable.”