by Moore, E. M.
T.J. hauled Dumont up onto his shoulders and turned for the plane once more. When he passed, he locked eyes with me briefly before taking off, the ancient vampire bouncing off his shoulders as he ran. Nic crawled to me, his fingers sinking into the dirt. When he got closer, he wrapped his hand in mine. It wasn’t the time to feel the sudden jolt of togetherness, but my body didn’t realize we were under fire.
Another stake soared through the air, piercing the emptiness with a whispered scream, kind of like the sound fireworks made as they were being shot into the air. Except if the stakes hit home, it wouldn’t be near as pretty as fireworks would be.
“Run!” Lex screamed. “We got two cars behind us. They’re emptying out. Pavone, get that plane ready. We need to leave as soon as I get on.”
“Copy that.”
A stake sunk into the tree Lex was using as cover and vibrated, the loud thwack it made echoing in my head. I pulled Nic’s hand and pushed him in front of me. If he wasn’t trying to wait for me, he’d be on the plane right now. We all knew he was much faster than me. “Go!”
He looked back at me, his face pure incredulity. He wasn’t going to leave me.
I bared down, willing my legs to move faster. More stakes soared through the air. I looked at them with fascination. How were they getting them to travel at that speed at that distance? They sure as hell weren’t throwing them. Or maybe they were. Vampires were stronger, but still, something wasn’t adding up. It seemed like they had help. Whatever the case, they had terrible aim.
Zeke passed us on his way back to Lex, dodging out of the way of flying stakes, his hand on his own wooden weapon poised to throw it when he got within distance.
Ten more yards and Nic and I were at the plane. Nic jumped up, landing in a crouch at the top of the plane and then turning for my hand. I ran and leapt as hard as I could. His fingers curled around my wrist and held on before dragging me up until my feet landed solidly on the airplane floor.
The plane’s engine roared beneath us. I looked back to find Lex not that far behind with Zeke at her heels. Catching Dumont’s crew in the tree line, I realized two things. One, they were using stake launchers. All they had to do was load the stakes and pull a trigger and the stake went flying at their target. Two, their aiming wasn’t bad. Or maybe it was, but we’d never know from what was happening right now. They weren’t aiming at all. They were just loading the stake and pulling the trigger without thought to where it would hit. That could only mean one thing. They weren’t trying to hit us. They were content with just scaring us.
I stared back at them, trying to understand what they were doing in all this as Nicolai caught Lex and handed her into the plane first, and then Zeke. He reached back and latched the plane door shut, sealing away Dumont’s people from my view.
“Take her away, Ryan,” Lex said.
Without an acknowledgment, the plane lurched forward, gathering speed. I sat down where I stood and scooted to the side of the plane, finding the handhold I’d had on the way here. Lex looked first at Nic, her eyes appraising, and then to the back of the plane where Dumont was still knocked out, lying down in front of T.J. as if he was asleep. When she realized our mission was complete, she sat herself. She dug around for her headset, and I found mine too. As soon as I slipped mine over my ears, I heard Lex say, “We’re on our way home. Nicolai and Dumont are with us. I repeat, we have Nicolai and Dumont.”
A whoop went up, and I knew instantly it was Connor. He’d done a lot to make sure this mission went off without a hitch including sending GPS coordinates to Nic’s phone to make sure he would be at the makeshift airfield when we got there. He’d gotten the aerial view of the field and told us exactly where Nic would be pulling up in Christian’s car and where we could find him. The only thing we didn’t realize was how close Dumont’s people were to Nic. Not that it mattered. They weren’t shooting to kill for some unknown reason. A very un-Dumont-like move.
A body sat next to me. Immediately, a warmth encompassed me that I couldn’t help but lean into. Soft lips pressed into my cheek and for one blissful second, I leaned into him, my eyes closing. But reality sunk in right away. My eyes flew open, and I looked straight at Lex. I might not have even known she saw anything except that a little crease appeared between her eyes. I swallowed the thickness in my throat and looked around at the other passengers in the back of the plane. T.J. was looking at Dumont, toeing him with his foot while Zeke scowled at the man on the floor. Though relief flooded me, I looked back at Lex and locked eyes with her. I didn’t know how she would take what she just saw, and all of a sudden, my mind was a whirl with a thousand different excuses on the tip of my tongue if she were to say anything.
We were just friends. We were caught up in the moment. The plane took off and he fell toward me, face first.
But no, Lex just stared, her brows furrowing every once in a while as she took the two of us in. It was evident after the first thirty seconds or so that she wasn’t going to say anything. At least not now.
If I had it my way, it would be never.
25
Honor was the highest virtue in which we should all strive to live by.
At least, that was what Dumont would have us all believe. He’d spewed nothing but shiny colloquialisms since he’d woken. First to Gregor, who insisted on being there as soon as Dumont became conscious again, and then to anyone and everyone who happened to be in the dungeons with him—and Soren.
It was odd to have anyone accuse the Ravanas of being anything less than honorable, especially with his anger behind it. For myself, I didn’t understand it. In my eyes, they’d done nothing but good things. But Dumont, he had a major bone to pick. Not surprisingly seeing as to the lengths he went to get here.
Time was running out though. Judging by the distance Dumont’s followers had by car to get to the estate, we had less than a half hour left. Decisions needed to be made. When his clan got here, were we going to have another bloody mess on our hands? A war to end all wars? That was what Lex wanted.
Gregor ran his hands through his hair. Though he wasn’t physically a day over thirty-five, figuratively, it looked like he’d aged quite a bit in the last few months. He just looked tired and fed up. His persona was hanging on by a fraying thread.
“If I may, Gregor,” Lex said, standing up from her chair in the Council room. “We cannot let his actions go unpunished. What kind of message will that send to our people? And worst of all, his people? They will surely fight then if they see us as weak. But if they see that our action is swift, and just, they’ll think twice.”
Gregor’s lips thinned. He ran his hand through his hair again and I hoped that vampires couldn’t go bald because for the amount of times Gregor had done that, he was probably pulling out hair left and right. He might be the first bald vampire in their history if he kept it up. “My mind agrees with you, Lex, but my heart says there is another way.”
Lex groaned in frustration. “But, Sir, the time has come for a decision. If we are to fight, I need to ready the guards, and they should’ve been at their positions already. If what Nicolai has said about his followers is true, then we are about to have a scene on our hands that we need to prepare for.”
He glared at her. “Which is the reason for my indecision! If we were to take Dumont’s life right now, if we threw his dead, lifeless body at his people, what then? Do you think they would stop?” He shook his head. “That sounds like an invitation for bloodshed if I ever heard one.”
“But doing nothing will ruin everything your family has worked so hard for.”
Gregor placed his elbows on the table in front of him and rubbed his temple. “Leave me. Everyone. The princes, my wife, other members of The Council can stay. The rest can leave.”
I sneaked a glance at Lex whose face was boiling red with anger. I looked at Nicolai worriedly as I followed the hasty departure of Lex and T.J. The large door closed behind us, echoing through the wide hall. “This is madness,” Lex said. Her feet made
quick work of the hall, seeming to be rapidly increasing in cadence with the rise of her anger. “It has been our objective from the beginning to get Dumont and kill him. He can do nothing when he is dead. He can’t rally his troops. He can’t make any more plans to destroy us. He will be dead, and his will will die alongside it.”
T.J. said nothing. His jaw was fixed, a muscle tightening as Lex spoke.
I agreed with Gregor and Lex both. Sort of. No one wanted Dumont dead more than me. Without him, I would be able to move on with my life without the threat for my family. But Gregor’s thoughts were sound as well. If Dumont died, would his people turn in their stakes and wait to be taken over? Not a chance. When people believed in something, they weren’t likely to let a leader’s death dissuade them from believing something else or not taking up the cause anymore. In the Ravanas’ case, one of the princes would step into Gregor’s shoes. The most likely choice would be Christian. In Dumont’s case, we weren’t as familiar with his clan dynamics, but I was sure there was a “Christian” around that would easily slide into Dumont’s position and take over. The only question left to be answered was were the Dumont clan warriors as dedicated as the Ravana Clan warriors? Did they believe in him so much that they would take the extra steps to keep his legacy going if he were to perish?
That question would be answered sooner rather than later.
“I’d like to talk to Soren,” I said to their backs.
“Why?” Lex snapped. “We have Dumont. Soren is of no use to us anymore.”
“He would know best about clan dynamics. He could answer questions for us that we can’t trust Dumont to answer truthfully.”
Lex stopped. She breathed out a heavy breath and then faced me. Her face was hard, but she was fighting for control. T.J. put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go get a coffee, Lex. You need to calm down. We’ll hear back from Gregor, and then we can start to make plans, no matter what they are. Everything will be fine. Gregor has never failed you before.”
He turned her away and then looked back at me. I gave him a small smile and he returned it. He’d said exactly what Isabelle had told me. Everything would be fine. I just had to believe that.
Once they were out of earshot, I walked quickly toward the holding cells. Guards stood at windows that overlooked the lawn, each of them fidgeting. The tension in the air was thick as dark, dense smoke. Each time the clock ticked, the tension ratcheted up that much higher. There was a lot to lose. But there was also a lot to gain. The moment was approaching when everything would come to a head. For better or worse, we would start on a path we couldn’t return from.
The cells in the Ravana Estate were a little dirtier, mustier than they were at The Fort as if they’d been there for centuries. It looked like that was the last time this part of the estate had been cleaned too.
When I walked in, Soren sat in a corner of his cell. There was no cot here like there was at The Fort. Just him and cobwebbed walls and a damp, cold floor with the thinnest layer of concrete at his feet. His eyes were closed as I made my way to the cell, but they opened when I grasped onto the old bars. A smile turned his lips up. “Young One.” He looked even frailer than he had before. I know they were feeding him only enough blood to keep him alive, and considering it wasn’t the fresh blood he was used to, it could’ve been having an even more damning impact on his system. “I see you’ve…” He bent his head toward Dumont’s cell several down. There was a guard off to the side. We’d decided he should be on observation for however long he was around.
“Yes,” I told him. My mind still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that Nic was back and safe. My lips trembled a little as I said it, thinking about all I could’ve lost.
His brows furrowed. “And?”
I heaved a sigh and sat in front of the cell, my sneakers looping against the bars to hold myself upright. “How many of you are there, Soren?”
“How many of me?”
“Followers? Family? Clan members? How many of Dumont’s people are we going to piss off if he gets what he deserves?”
“They’re on their way aren’t they?” I nodded and he inched closer to me, his clothes showing their wear from the time spent in captivity. “It will be a big fight, Young One. It is what you’ve failed to realize all along. This army, as you called it, they’re not just his subjects. They’re family, they’re clan, and they’re as loyal to him as you are to Gregor.”
“But you told me once that it’s more beneficial to have people beside you and not behind you. I thought that meant their ties to him aren’t as strong. But you still think it will be a tough fight?”
“You’ve forgotten the key factor. They must first have knowledge that life can be another way. These vampires have followed him for centuries. They’ve known no other way but his, and you aren’t going to convince them otherwise in the span of time it takes for them to breech the estate.”
I leaned in, and Soren did the same. I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. He couldn’t hurt me, and in fact, he’d done so much to help he was practically my ally. “I think he wanted to come here. He didn’t put up a fight when we took him and neither did his clan. We were pursued, but not engaged.”
Soren hid a smile.
“What?”
“Sometimes I forget how little you know, and your ignorance is funny. Of course he wanted to come here. This was his home, Young One. What better way to take over the Ravanas and reclaim his position than from the very spot in which he was overthrown? You heard his pretty speeches earlier about honor and integrity. Sure, you believe in one side, same as the others who believe in the other side. Who’s to say who is right? Dumont led like a dictator. His will was everything. Say what you want about that, but he brought the vampire world together. He instituted laws when there were none. He organized us into a thriving society for many centuries before his people started to speak out. You must remember that vampires are eternal. Half a century is like one year to the mortals. We never age, we never die, but the world changes around us rapidly from one fad to another. Newly turned vampires have different notions, are born with different ethics, and have different ingrained beliefs. We did not realize what we’d done until it was too late. The revolt happened suddenly, blindsiding Dumont who still lived within his century when family honor meant more than anything else. He never expected it.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “So it’s okay to treat people poorly if you have the excuse of being elderly? You don’t expect me to buy this, do you, Soren? He was a thoughtless, careless manipulator who did things on a whim to please himself and only himself.”
“So says your new age ideals.”
“Oh spare me the nonsense.”
He cracked a smile. “You are only proving my point. I’m not saying Dumont isn’t those other things, I’m just saying that back during the time he came from, it was right to be that way. The men ruled the women absolutely, and the head of the family’s wishes were carried out without concern or thought except that he said it should be so. They were like gods. Revered and trusted that their wisdom was far more superior than the layman’s. Dumont was to ruling as your grandparents are to using a smart phone. He just didn’t fit the newness.”
“But fair—”
“Fairness had nothing to do with it!” I leaned away from the cell and Soren frowned. “One day you’ll have ideals that are outdated, Young One, and maybe you’ll understand then. I’m telling you all this to make you realize that his people will fight for him. Either they have been with him for centuries, or they have been brought up in his way of living where his word is everything. If you choose to fight—”
“If we choose to kill,” I said, interrupting.
“Then you will have a war unlike any you have ever seen.”
“Then how does one win this, Soren? How does one move on from this? We can’t let Dumont go on threatening to take over the Ravanas and move everyone back into the Dark Ages. There will be too many senseless deaths. He can’t win. There must
be another way for us to come out on top.”
“Does anyone really ever win war, Young One? I don’t expect you to know with your limited experience. Though they think differently from you, there are good people who follow Dumont. Any deaths would be senseless on both sides. All would be fighting for what they think is right. Each of you yelling to the other that you know the best way, that you think the other is wrong, that you think the way they live is reprehensible, and that yours is better. Get ready for the nature of war because there it is. Two ideals using their human hosts to fight it out; both sides self-righteous with ignited fury.”
I swallowed a gasp and pushed back from the cell, my legs and arms turning numb with the acknowledgment of what Soren had just said. Yes, I was a guardian. Yes, I fought for what I believed in. But at the very center of all that wasn’t to take out those who thought differently from me. It was only the safety and security of those I loved, those I was stationed to that drew me to this life. I didn’t want any more lives to be taken away, whether human or vampire. I only ever fought back against those who threatened mine and those around me, and at this point in time, it was only Dumont. He was the real culprit, his elderly excuse or not, he was trying to take something away from me that could never be replaced. I would die fighting for it. I would die fighting those who dared tried to take it from me. That much hadn’t changed. And would never change. But what of the rest? What of the people who were just brainwashed, going through the motions in life by those who had power over them?
Soren followed my retreat, his face fitting just between the bars, his eyes wide and dangerous. “I can tell you what he wants, what will appease him. Go to the library and find the laws from his reign. Look up the way to settle disputes. Look up the way to challenge him. He will not refuse it. I can’t guarantee you victory, but it will spare lives.”
Excited shouts erupted from around us. The sound of footfall thumping started my heart racing again. We were too late. Dumont’s clan was here, and nothing had been decided.
