by Lili Zander
Someone hammers my door. I frown in irritation. It’s probably Mazer, sent by Astrid to make sure I’m okay.
It’s not Mazer. It’s Tomas Cabal. “I’ve been thinking,” he says.
I step aside, and he enters. “Always a dangerous thing to do,” I quip.
He ignores my comment. “If you’re Harek Levitan, where would you hide?”
“I don’t know, Tomas. The Uncharted Reaches, maybe. Or maybe one of the Jowth families decided to offer him shelter. Isn’t it your job to find out?”
Tomas shakes his head. “He wouldn’t go to the Uncharted Reaches. Harek Levitan thinks the people living there are all scum. Deina, Ghani, all his targets were in the Uncharted Reaches. Their lives don’t matter to him.”
I stare at the hacker. “Okay,” I say slowly. “Tell me more.”
“He’s been in power for a very long time. He’s not used to being on the run. He wouldn’t know where to go to get new identification. He wouldn’t know how to blend in. Disappear. In a fit of pique, he threw away Marya Revit’s loyalty, and now, he’s screwed. She would have kept him alive. Now, he has to fend for himself.”
He’s right. Levitan is dangerous when he’s in the seat of his power. Alone, friendless, he’s not as much of a threat. “Get to the point faster, Tomas.”
“He’s a creature of habit. Where did he hide his stolen boarium? On Banrilia, in the home of his enemy, where no one would think to look for it.”
Realization slams into me. His enemy. We’re Levitan’s biggest enemies now. We’re the ones who thwarted his insane bid of power. “You think he went to Corvallis.”
“I can’t reach them,” Tomas says. “Solar flares interfere with comms.”
Harek Levitan is in Corvallis, and he’s nursing one hell of a grudge.
I’m already moving. “Fuel the Valiant. I’m going after them.”
31
Raven
“This is so nice.”
The Family Hafsson estates are vast, of course, but when we landed, Saber bypassed the main compound, heading instead to a smaller cottage set on top of a hill with views overlooking the sun-drenched countryside.
We’ve only been on Corvallis for a few hours, but already, I feel my stress melt away. I feel the cloud of gloom lift. I’m not fine—that’ll take longer—but for the first time in weeks, I feel good.
In front of me, the ocean is a clear, vivid shade of blue. There’s a pathway down the hill to the beach, and there’s a pool there, overlooking the water. It’s spectacularly beautiful. I stand on the veranda and luxuriate in the heat of the sun beating down on my face. I understand why the capital is domed, but I’ve missed this.
“Growing up, this was my favorite place to visit,” Saber says, coming up behind me and kissing the back of my neck. He’s wearing a towel around his waist and nothing else. “Want to go for a swim?”
Nero emerges from the house as well. He stretches lazily, and his shirt rides up to expose his flat, hard stomach. My insides tighten. My vampires notice, of course. “Or we could find a bed,” Zeke suggests, his voice low and intimate. “And rest.”
“Rest. Is that what we’re calling it?” I take the towel Nero offers me. “I want to go down to the water, but I don’t know how to swim.”
“We’ll teach you.” Nero’s still thinking about sex. I can see the hard outline of his cock pressed against his trousers. He winks at me. “I can be very patient when I need to be.”
Laughing at Nero’s banter, we make our way down the hill. Saber takes off his towel and dives into the water. Zeke and Nero get undressed and jump in too. I linger on the edge, giving the pool an uncertain look. “How cold is the water?”
Saber rolls his eyes. “You are from Boarus 4. Don’t be a baby.”
“There were hot springs on Boarus 4,” I retort. “When I stepped in, it was gloriously warm.” I bend down and run my fingers through the water, and I shake my head. Only a vampire would consider this warm enough to swim in. “No, no, and hell, no. It’s freezing.”
“Hang on, I’ll adjust the temperature,” Zeke says cooperatively. I beam at him as he turns up the heat. When the water’s hot enough, I start to take off my clothes. The vampires watch with hungry eyes as I unstrap the belt at my waist. Then my shirt, and then the arm wraps around my forearm, containing my throwing blades.
Zeke lifts an eyebrow. “Should we be afraid that you’re carrying knives everywhere you go?”
“Hala’s instructions. She’s been teaching me to throw them.” I drop the arm wraps next to the pool, and then kick off my shoes.
“How many knives do you have?” Saber asks with interest.
I show him the thin needles tucked behind the shoe fastenings, the short knives around my ankles, and the flat steel blades at the base of my soles. “Very nice,” he approves. “I must thank Hala.”
I get out of my pants and shimmy free of my underclothing. I start to unbuckle the thigh wrap, but Nero shakes his head. “Keep that one,” he says, his eyes luminous with need. “It’s hot. Dangerous.” His hand closes around my ankle, and his voice dips low. “I love dangerous women. Get in the water, kära, and show me your moves.”
A breathless laugh tears out of me. “And you accuse me of having a thing for danger sex.” I shiver at his naked look of desire. Keeping the thigh wrap on—I can be very cooperative when I want—I wade into the pool.
We splash around for hours until my skin is wrinkled and pruny. Then I retreat to the shallow end, where a bench is built into the walls of the swimming pool. “I still can’t really believe it’s all over,” I say, perching myself on it. “When we go back, we’ll have Astrid’s coronation, and then I’ll have to think about the future.”
Saber pulls himself next to me. “What do you mean, the future?”
This is going to cause an argument. “I know Family Hafsson is wealthy,” I say carefully. “But I don’t want to be dependent on your money. I need to find a job.”
Nero settles next to me too. “Already spent the money Zeke and I gave you?” he teases. “I’m impressed. Really.”
“Very funny. You didn’t give me that money for me to spend on myself.” I frown. “Saber’s been paying for all my dresses, which I’m okay with, because you want me to fit into Starra society. Left to myself, I wouldn’t attend any of these balls. But I still need money for other stuff.”
“What kind of work do you want to do?” Saber asks.
Huh. I thought he’d be offended. I was bracing myself for a fight. This is almost too easy. Not that I’m complaining. “I’m not sure. I haven’t had much of a chance to think about it. I’m not really qualified for anything, so that makes things complicated.”
Before I can answer, there’s a rustling in the trees to the right of the pool. A shadow falls over us, and when I look up, Harek Levitan stands between us and the ocean.
And he’s holding a gun in his hands.
Life on the run doesn’t suit Levitan. The man in the holos was sleek and well-groomed, his grey hair trimmed short, his back ramrod straight. Now, after a month in exile, a grey beard covers his jaw. His clothes are stained and torn. He’s lost the cold precision that was his hallmark. Something raw and savage stares out of his dark eyes.
“If I were you,” he says, holding up his gun and aiming it at Saber’s head. “I wouldn’t move.”
We freeze.
“Astrid exiled me. She seized my estates and dissolved my family. She made sure that not a single person in the Empire would help me.”
His voice is a monotone. His hand doesn’t shake. I try not to panic and fail miserably.
“It’s a funny thing,” he continues. “I came so close to success. When I look back at where it all started to go wrong, it comes down to a handful of people.” He bares his teeth in a feral smile. “In an ironic coincidence, most of them are right here.”
We’re in the pool. We’re naked. We have no weapons. Nero’s body is set in lines of tension. He’s calculating the odd
s. Could he jump out of the water in time to stop Levitan?
No. The General is not stupid enough to get close to us. He’s well out of reach. By the time Nero gets close enough to tackle him, he would have put a bullet in Nero’s head, pointed his gun at Saber, put a bullet in his brain, then he would have shot Zeke, and finally, me. My vampires can explode out of the water with frightening speed, but they’re not faster than bullets.
He’s going to shoot us in cold blood; I can read it in his eyes. He’s going to murder us all.
Saber’s face is paler than I’ve ever seen it. “Your fight is with us. Let Raven go. She has nothing to do with this.”
An ugly sneer covers Levitan’s face. “Let her go? I’m going to kill her first. Then I’m going to kill Calorio. Losing his entire family wasn’t enough for Ulrich; he’s still here. I’m going to blow his brains out. I’m going to kill the woman you love, Hafsson, and then I’m going to kill the last surviving members of your team. When you are surrounded by the corpses of the people you care about the most, I will watch you realize the true cost of opposing me.” His fangs extend. “You’ll break, Hafsson. And then, I will kill you.”
We don’t have time to reach the blades on the ground near the pool. This isn’t Overlord Zimmer we’re facing. Zimmer was an untrained civilian, but Levitan has led soldiers into battle. We will not be faster than him.
The knife strapped to my thigh. He can’t see me reach for it. For a split-second, I’ll have the element of surprise, and I have to make the most of it. I’ve got to pull the blade out and throw it in one movement.
I have one chance. Just one.
I’m not accurate. Hala’s been making me practice, but I’m nowhere as precise as she is.
Today, I’ll have to be.
His finger moves on the trigger. Time slows to a crawl. My hand moves to my thigh. Levitan’s not watching me; he’s looking at Saber. I slide the knife out of its sheath, grip the handle. Then I surge out of the water and fling the blade.
He moves in a blur, almost too fast to see. The knife slices into his thigh, but he’s already firing back.
My shoulder explodes. Agony tears into me. Blood, hot, red and furious, gushes out of my wound and seeps into the clear blue of the pool.
Saber, Nero, and Zeke burst out of the water. Levitan’s finger presses again on the trigger. A fist clenches my heart. I can’t tear my eyes away from my vampires. He’s going to shoot them. He’s going to kill my vampires, and I’m going to watch them die.
A gunshot fires. Harek Levitan flies backward. Ragnar walks up to the man he once thought of as a father. He picks up my knife from the ground and watches expressionlessly as the blood pours out of his body.
“Ragnar,” the dying man pleads.
Ragnar’s face is savage. “You hurt the woman I love.” He kneels to the ground, and he slides the knife between Levitan’s ribs, cold and precise. A killing stroke. We watch the light leave the vampire’s eyes.
Pain washes over me and drags me under. Everything goes dark.
32
Raven
I’m in a hospital bed when I wake up. Ragnar is sitting in a corner. A vase near the window holds a handful of lilies.
The flowers are wilted. He’s forgotten to add water to the vase. A rare crack in the shell of terrifying competence that Ragnar wraps around himself.
You hurt the woman I love.
I try to sit up, and he surges out of the chair, relief shuddering through his body. For a second, he stares at me, naked emotion in his eyes. Then a smile curves his lips. “You’re awake.”
I feel as weak as a newborn kitten. “So it appears.”
He hands me a box of chocolates. “I’d give you a jeweled chalice filled with blood, but I’ve heard from reliable sources that it’s a stupid gift.”
I try to get up. Red hot pain radiates from my right shoulder through my entire body. I grind my teeth, push past it, and sit up. “How long have I been unconscious?”
“Three days. You lost a lot of blood.” He takes a deep breath. He looks awful. There are dark circles under his eyes. “For a few hours, we weren’t sure if you’d make it.”
Huh. Pain aside, I don’t feel awful. They must have pumped me to the brim with vampire blood.
“You saved our lives. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, Levitan would have shot us.” The memory of it makes me shudder. “Shouldn’t I be the one giving you gifts?”
He glances at me. “Are we keeping score, Raven?” There’s something in his eyes that I don’t have the courage to face. Not anymore. “I wouldn’t have made it in time. You bought me the five seconds I needed.”
“Where are the others?”
“Outside. Your doctors predicted you’d wake up today.”
“So you pulled rank to talk to me first?”
His green-grey eyes rest on me. “I asked nicely.”
“Shocking.”
He chuckles and sits on the bed next to me. “That’s what Saber said.”
It crystallizes into place with painful clarity. I love Ragnar. I love everything about him. The amusement that lingers in the corners of his eyes. The way his lips twitch when I say something particularly outrageous. The strength of his purpose. The loyalty he gives his friends. I hoped it would heal in time, but now, with him sitting next to me, I realize that there will be no healing. Every time I look at him, the wound will be ripped open.
“What are you doing here, Ragnar?”
He’s right next to me. I can feel the warmth of his body. The strength in his arms. Need fills me, a need to close the distance between us. To wrap my arms around him and brush my lips over his.
Wariness born from heartache freezes me in place.
“There are a few different answers I could give you.”
I roll my eyes. “Ah, an enigmatic response. Of course. Open this box of chocolates for me, please. I’m going to need it.”
A smile curves his lips as he obeys. I choose a purple-hued candy and pop it into my mouth. Delicious sweetness explodes on my tongue. Ignoring the way his nostrils flare in lust, ignoring the way his eyes snap to my lips, I eat another piece, and then a third. “Okay, I’m ready. Give me a few different answers.”
He appears to be at a rare loss for words. He gathers his thoughts, and then finally, he pulls a data stick from his pocket and extends it to me. “Nero gave this to me on Zola Prime,” he says. “It’s your file from the re-education camp.”
Spirit, not this again. “Let me guess. You saw the vids, you were horrified, and now you realize I’m a survivor. Should I applaud? I could have told you that if you’d bothered to ask.”
I’m angry. Over and over again, I threw myself at Ragnar. Over and over, he pushed me away. Then suddenly he realizes I had a difficult childhood, I’m capable of taking care of myself, and everything’s supposed to be better? Fuck that.
I eat another piece of chocolate.
“What a cliché.” He tries to steal one of my sweets, and I smack his hand. Mine. “I had a very good idea what went on in the re-education camps. I didn’t need to see your file to realize you were a survivor. I’ve always known that.”
Hope blooms in my heart like the first flower after a long and brutal winter. I trample it into the ground.
He stares into the distance. “My life is dangerous. I love you. My love will make you a target. You will inherit all my enemies, and I have a lot of them. People will lie to you and cheat you. You will trust people, and they will betray you. You will always be surrounded by bodyguards. You will always expect a knife in your back.” He turns toward me. “You’d been through hell already. I wanted to spare you that. I thought after what you’d been through, you deserved better than my life.”
He loves you.
“I know how dangerous your life is. I’m not a fool. I’m already surrounded by bodyguards.” I dig my nails into the sheets to keep myself from reaching to him and repeat my question. “What are you doing here, Ragnar?”
; “I watched the vids. You want to know what I saw?”
With every fiber of my being. “Do I really have a choice? I seem to be stuck in this hospital bed.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. “I saw a fourteen-year-old child put herself between an angry enforcer and a new arrival. I saw a young woman sleep with a guard for an extra blanket that she promptly gave her cellmate.” His gaze is warm. “Nero was right. You’re a born leader. You walked through hell, and you came out the other side, and you never once lost sight of who you were.”
He twists his lips into a grimace. “Everyone else knew. Saber, Zeke, and Nero. Astrid. Hala. Not me. If I could pretend that the reason I didn’t want to be with you was because I didn’t want to expose you to my life, then I didn’t need to face the truth.”
My voice comes out in a whisper. “Which is?”
“When it comes to you, I’m a coward. If I fall in love with you, if something were to happen to you, it would rip my soul into a million pieces.” He puts his hand on my thigh. “If something were to happen to you because of me, I would shatter.” His smile is wry. “Then Tomas told me Harek Levitan was on Corvallis, and I was forced to face something I’d been doing my level best to ignore. It’s too late for me. I’ve already fallen in love with you.”
I stare at his hand on my leg and then place mine over his. “I guess the answer to your question is this,” he says quietly. “I love you. I love your bravery and your strength, your kindness, and your empathy. You are everything I want. I’ve spent the last three days calling myself every name in the galaxy, because if you died, I would have squandered away the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
He straightens his shoulders. “I told you once that I wanted to be your friend. I was lying. I want to be part of your bô. I want to wake up next to you. I want you to drink from me. I want you in my life. You have no reason to give me another chance, but I’m here anyway, begging for one.”
I look into his eyes. There’s no mocking gleam. No princely walls. There’s just Ragnar, naked and raw and laying it on the line.
