Ravana Clan Vampires: Complete Series

by Moore, E. M.

  I peeked at T.J., my eyebrows raised. I agreed 100% with everything he said, I just didn’t realize he had it in him to say it like that.

  “Now, let’s get back to work. Ariana, I want you to do sneak attacks on Zeke. Zeke, turn toward that wall and Ariana will come at you with whatever attack she wants, and you’ll just have to sense it and deal with it. Do whatever comes naturally, just make sure you win.” When Zeke turned, T.J. mouthed at me, ‘Give him hell.’

  I intended to. Only waiting a second after that, I ran toward him, only deciding at the last second how I was going to approach him. This was going to be oddly familiar in a few hours when I put my plan into motion.

  22

  We stopped for a short break, so I made my way into Stephan’s triage tent. I’d been worried about him ever since Lex’s fight. Out of all my princes, he didn’t take the sometimes brutal nature of what we did all that well. These fights took a toll on gentle heart. Also, there was the little thing about him knocking me out that I needed to talk to him about. Isabelle told me it was her idea, but that didn’t mean he should be shoving syringes into my body.

  His back faced me when I entered the room. He straightened a little, just enough to let me know he’d sensed I was there, but he still didn’t turn. He arranged medical instruments and small brown bottles on a tray in front of him. I walked up to him and put a hand on the small of his back. “Hey.”

  He looked over his shoulder at me with shining emerald eyes. His face looked bleak, a clear canvas in which he didn’t know how to feel. “Hey.”

  I bumped him with my hip. “You all right?”

  He snickered a little, but it lacked feeling. “You’re asking me if I’m alright? I should be asking you that.”

  He fiddled with one of the bottles in front of him. I cocked my head toward it and grinned. “Is that what you used to knock me out yesterday?” I meant to say it as a joke, but I couldn’t help the sting it caused from leaking its way into my words. Even the smile plastered on my face didn’t help.

  He looked down, stopping his nervous gesture with the small vial. Putting his hands behind his back, he stepped away from me. “I didn’t mean to give you that much. Isabelle was in my ear telling me we needed to take you away. I think she was worried Dumont might do something to you after you ran into the arena. You were inconsolable, so I gave you more than I thought was necessary to make sure you wouldn’t fight it.”

  Sounded like he’d actually thought it through. I knew what it meant to make a decision the other person would hate even though it was for the best. “I’m not mad,” I reassured him. “I know you’d never do anything to hurt me, Stephan. You are the sweetest creature I’ve ever met. Sometimes I think you wouldn’t even hurt a fly.”

  He put his arms around me and held me to him. I felt so safe and secure there in the crook of his neck. I wound my arms around him and hugged him tight.

  “It doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry.”

  “No, I suppose it doesn’t. But there’s really no reason to be.” I picked my head up and stared him in the eyes. “But you didn’t answer my question. Is this what you used on me?” I picked the vial up and smiled at him teasingly. “It was powerful stuff.”

  He nodded. “Yes. We use it on patients who need to settle down. I used it on T.J….after.” He looked away. “I didn’t get a chance to use it on Samuel or Lex.”

  I swallowed as bile rose up in my throat. When this was over, Stephan was going to realize why I asked him this. I’d lied and betrayed him. Not to mention that he was just as upset at the events of the last few days as I was. It bothered him that he couldn’t save everyone. “I know,” I told him, eager to comfort him. “But you would have. You would’ve been the first person there if there’d been anything to do. This will be a win tonight, so you’ll get a chance to use your miracle cream on someone else.”

  He lifted his eyebrows.. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I have faith.” I shrugged. “I have faith that I wasn’t brought here for it all to end so early. You feel that way too, don’t you? You should have faith, Stephan. Everything will work out in the end.”

  A nurse came in, and I stepped back quickly. Stephan stepped in front of me to answer her question while I used his preoccupation to grab the vial of medicine and the syringe off the tray in front of us. I slipped the two things into my pocket, finally initiating my plot to take Zeke out. The plan formed after Zeke punched the exact spot Stephan had slid the needle into my arm during training earlier. Good thing Stephan had knocked me out yesterday or I wouldn’t have thought of a semi decent way to take Zeke out for a few hours. Well, a way that didn’t resolve to bashing him upside the head.

  My pocket felt heavy with the promises and the fear of what was to come. My stomach turned to knots. I was really going to go through with this. I was going to shove this into Zeke, wait until he fell asleep, then go out there and fight for my clan—all without telling the princes a thing.

  I took a deep breath and held it in my chest. I hoped they didn’t stay too mad at me after all this. If it all worked out the way I thought it would, I could promise them I’d never put my life in danger willingly again. We just had to get through the next couple hours. The next fight. The next win. Once they saw me defeat Dumont’s man, they’d have to forgive me.

  “Hey,” Stephan said, smoothing a hand down my arm. “Where’d you go?”

  I blinked and looked at him. I’d been stuck in my own thoughts for who knew how long. I gazed behind him and noticed the nurse was gone. It was just us again. Shrugging, I said, “Not sure. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, I guess.” I stared up at him, taking in every ounce of his soft features mixed with those demanding green eyes. “You know how much I love you, right, Stephan?”

  His forehead wrinkled, then he stepped forward and cupped my cheek in his palm. “You are my everything.” He tilted his head down and put his forehead on mine. “I can’t wait for this to be over. I want to start living again, not having to wait for people to die. I want to save people, I don’t want to sit helplessly by as another person loses their life. I want this over with no matter what the outcome. I’d rather we win and stay here, but—” He looked around, then lowered his voice, bringing his lips to my ear where they brushed over the sensitive skin, bringing tingles to my body. “Even if it’s somewhere else, at least we’ll all be together without the threats. We pretty much have everything we need to live long happy lives together. You and Nicolai can protect us, I can heal us, Christian can tell us what to do, and Connor…well, I don’t know what Connor can do.”

  I snickered, then sealed my lips shut. “We need a cook.”

  He shook his head. “Connor’s not a good cook.”

  I laughed. “No, I just mean that we need to eat. Who’s going to feed us?”

  “You don’t think there are pizza shops in Australia?”

  I stood on my tiptoes and kissed the corner of his lips. “I hope there are good ones.”

  “We’ll make do. All that matters is that we’re all there—safe.”

  God, what was I going to do to him? I swallowed, and stepped forward, sealing my lips to his. I closed my eyes and lost myself in kissing him. He pulled me close, wrapping his long arms around me, encapsulating me in his embrace. I huddled there willingly, tilting my head back so he could kiss me more thoroughly. Stephan, always with his attention to detail, left me breathless with my heart skipping through its normal rhythm.

  He urged my lips apart, making the kiss more intimate. Pulling me in and making me lose myself. I reached out to thread my fingers through the short hairs at the base of his neck when both our cell phones went off. Both of us sighed, pulling away slowly. He interlaced his fingers with mine then brought them up to his face to kiss my knuckles. “You know what that’s going to be about, don’t you?”

  I hid the panic that shot through me. “Leaving?”

  He nodded. “It’s Nicolai. He’s getting antsy.”

  “You don’
t…you don’t want to leave?” I asked, my mouth drying at the idea of leaving all this behind.

  He looked at me warily. “I want to be wherever you are, but I also don’t want to leave unnecessarily. I’m of use here, Ariana. I’m hardly of use anywhere. I can’t fight as well as Nic and Christian. I’m okay with computers, but not like Connor. Healing is the only way I’ve been able to contribute, and I just keep asking myself who’s going to do it if someone gets hurt tonight and I’m not here. Not to mention that I basically prepared…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

  “What?” I urged

  “I prepared Lex’s body for her funeral. I know it’s not directly helping. It’s not fighting for our safety for instance, but it’s what I can do.”

  I squeezed his fingers. “Are you kidding me, Stephan? You do so much. You should never feel lesser than because you’re not out there trying to kill someone. What you do is far more important. You pick people up after they’ve gone through hell. Have you seen T.J. lately? I bet he wouldn’t be able to help half as much in the training rooms if it weren’t for you. You healed him. You gave him a better life in a quicker amount of time. If it weren’t for you, he might still be in a hospital bed. You should never apologize for giving life instead of taking it away.”

  “I know. I love what I do, I just—” He shrugged. “—can’t help but think I’d be more helpful right now if I knew how to kick some vampire ass.”

  I smirked. “Not that Gregor would let you fight, anyway. So, it’s a moot point. I, for one, am so proud of you. Always have been.”

  Our phones beeped again, and Stephan sighed deeply as if it came up through his toes. Actually, scratch that. It was as if he were a tree and the sigh originated from his deepest root, firmly planted in the ground.

  “I’ll handle it. I told him.” I took out my cell phone and sure enough, Nic was texting in our group text. They were waiting in my room, ready for a meeting. I relayed the information to Stephan and added, “We could just not go…

  “As tempting as that is, I would be furious with us if we were them.”

  “Alright,” I said dejectedly. I popped up on my toes again and kissed him on the cheek. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Stephan and I walked leisurely through the estate and then up the stairs. As soon as we crested the top stair, we saw Connor leaning against the doorjamb. He yelled back over his shoulder, “Told you they were together.”

  Stephan shoved his brother’s shoulder playfully as we went into the room. Nicolai and Christian immediately stood from their positions on the bed and came closer. Nic didn’t pull any punches. “I want to leave now.”

  A dizzy spell prodded at my head. We all weren’t on the same page, especially me. It wasn’t time. “I think we still have a chance. Zeke—”

  “You don’t even like Zeke,” Nic said, taking away whatever I was going to say.

  “So? That doesn’t mean I don’t want him to win.” I swallowed the bitter taste of the lie. “He’s our last chance. And if he does, we can’t just leave your father here alone. It’s a bad idea. It sends the wrong message. It’s…” I ran out of things to say, but implored him with my eyes. I really, really didn’t want to duck and run on this one. Even if I didn’t have another scheme in place, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave the clan early. “I spoke to your father earlier. He understands why we all want to leave. He’s asking us to conceal it as long as possible. I don’t think we should go just yet.”

  “You told Gregor?” Christian asked, his eyebrows coming to peaks. “Why would you do that?”

  I blew out a breath. “I don’t know. He was being really understanding. He told me he understood why we wanted to leave and then told me how hard it was to be both leader and father. He wants us to be as far away from here as possible in case anything happens, but at the same time, knows how it’s going to look to the rest of the clan, us retreating with our tails between our legs.”

  “We’re not running,” Nicolai said, the veins in his arms popping out now. “We made a plan that was best for all of us.”

  We made a plan? I remember barely being involved. Not that I had a leg to stand on about that gripe. “Last time we spoke we all agreed to think about it. I’ve thought about it and I don’t want to leave yet. It doesn’t seem like the right time. Stephan agrees.”

  Nic glared at his brother. “We talked about this.”

  “Don’t give him a hard time.”

  Stephan put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ariana, Nic and I have already been over and over this. He knows my feelings, he just thinks he can will me into taking his side. It’s not going to work.”

  Nic stepped back and put two shaking hands through his dark hair. He looked more disheveled than normal, more rogue as if the were a ticking time bomb. “Nothing matters to me more than the safety of all of us. My instincts are telling me to leave if we want to get out of this unscathed.”

  Christian held his hand up. “Alright, alright, let’s all calm down. Let’s put it to a vote. Who wants to leave?” He and Nicolai raised their hands. Connor looked from them to Stephan and I, bouncing back and forth between us. He gave me an exasperated look, but kept his hand down. Christian’s voice turned hard. “Who wants to stay?” Mine and Stephan’s hands along with Connor’s slipped into the air.

  Nic glared at Connor, and Connor shrugged. “We’re all not on the same page, and that’s not how we do things. We can talk again after Zeke’s fight.”

  “And if he loses and all hell breaks loose right there in front of us?”

  “We can talk very quickly afterward. We are vampires after all.” Nic didn’t find his quip in the least bit funny, but Connor charged on anyway. “Maybe we could even convince Mother to come with us if Zeke loses.”

  “When you say convince…?”

  “I mean we just take her,” he said, his voice even.

  “I think Gregor would agree with you on that,” I told them, remembering our conversation from earlier.

  “So, we’re agreed then?” Stephan asked. “We’ll talk after the fight?”

  “It may be a short talk,” Nic warned, his eyes darkening.

  I could only imagine what that meant. Perhaps it involved several knocks over the heads and shoulder carries as he dragged all of us out of there. The image might’ve made me laugh if it wasn’t for the predicament we were in. Every step from here on out would be crucial.

  23

  Getting away from the princes to go down to the training rooms to “help” Zeke was virtually impossible. I ended up telling them I felt it only right I go down there because I’d done it for all the other fights. I didn’t want it to look suspicious if I didn’t show myself. That excuse didn’t convince Nic. He knew I didn’t like Zeke. But, he also knew how much what Samuel had said to me before his fight had hit home, so I was given a little leeway because of that. Instead of not showing up at all, they all came with me. I still had time to think about how I was going to get alone with Zeke, which wouldn’t be a small feat considering there were people around all the time.

  For instance, when we came into the training room, Gregor stood there along with T.J. and Soren. Gregor gave his customary speech, thanking Zeke for fighting for his clan. When he passed me, he looked me straight in the eye. Christian ended up following him out of the room so at least that was one less prince to worry about worming away from. As soon as he cleared the doorway, however, my heart sunk. I hadn’t gotten a chance to kiss him or hug him before what I was about to do. I told Stephan I loved him, and it was my goal to get a moment with each of the princes, but the way things were going, it might not be possible. My heart broke in that instant before I hardened it, steeling myself to stay the course I’d already started. I couldn’t think that this might be the last time I would see them. I had to stay positive and believe that there were still plenty of opportunities for me to tell them all I needed to. This wasn’t the last chance, this was just the first step in our very long, very happy futur
e with one another. Besides, if I went around telling them how much I loved them, they’d see right through me.

  Nerves tangled in my stomach as I watched Soren talk to Zeke. I inched closer, taking his words all in. Clive was tricky. He didn’t do what you expected. Well, that was a relief because I was doing something I didn’t expect either. We’d probably fit really well with one another. Bounce around. Don’t stay cemented to one spot. Play it wiry. Don’t give him tells, he’ll read you like a picture book.

  Soren caught me listening. The corner of his lip quirked up. I couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps he, out of everyone here, knew what I was going to do. It seemed strange that he would, but he also seemed to know that I was supposed to be out there instead of Zeke. I wondered which one of them told him. I shook my head, it didn’t matter.

  I started bouncing around from foot to foot. Soren immediately called me over. “Ariana, why don’t you warm up with Zeke? Let’s get those butterflies out of the stomach, huh?” He winked at me when I passed him, and my stomach lurched. I patted my pocket and moved the vial off to the side. I hoped that no matter how physical it got, the medicine didn’t break in my pocket. That would be pretty hard to explain to everybody.

  Zeke and I went through a short calisthenics warm-up to get the juices flowing, then we went through a series of moves. We started with takedowns, then quickly moved to upper body strikes, lower body strikes, and finished with weapons. I stretched my arms out off to the side as Soren excused himself. I watched him leave, and the nerves were like mini imposters in my body. Time was running short. Soren went out to do his usual survey of the arena to see which vampire warrior was making his way out. He hadn’t been wrong yet, so there was no reason to think Clive wasn’t going to be the one to fight. But even if he wasn’t the one coming out, it didn’t matter. The wrong one was coming out for our side, too. Just no one knew it but me yet.