Last Vamp Standing (20 page)

“Everyone is so thankful for a place to seek shelter, I’m sure they would’ve crashed on the couches in the lobby if you would’ve let them. And I wouldn’t be so hard on your Primus,” she said, pulling down the front of her sweater. “He has a lot on his shoulders.”

“I’m not sure what gave you the impression I was being hard on him.” Ariana shook her head. “We get along fine.”

“I’m sorry, that was wrong of me to say. I’m sure you work together really well.”

Ariana’s lips pursed. Who had Dylan been talking to? And what did they know about Ariana’s strained relationship with her Primus?

“How is the blood supply coming along?” Ariana asked, desperate to change the subject.

“No snags so far. Narci is wonderfully helpful. These boxes are going to the vamps on the second floor. We started at the top with the elders, per your Primus’s orders of course, and are working our way down. We should have enough to get us through the day and most of tomorrow. I’d be able to work a lot faster if Slade didn’t insist I use this damn thing.” She patted the metal handle of the dolly. “I could carry this many boxes in one hand, but Slade says he wants me to take extra precautions, and these things weigh a ton.”

“Want me to give you a hand?”

“No,” she rubbed her tiny tummy. “I think the baby likes exercise. I get a kick every time the elevator goes up and down.”

The second-floor button lit up.

“Okay, but if you need anything,” Ariana said, “anything at all, it’s okay to be the squeaky wheel.”

“Don’t worry about me squeaking. It’s getting me to shut up that’s the problem.” Dylan double-checked Mathilda’s position on her waistband before rolling the dolly out the elevator like the boxes were packed with feathers instead of bottles.

Ariana held the doors open for her to pass through. Dylan handled the boxes like a pro. Like she’d distributed a hundred boxes just like these to a hundred other starving vamps.

“One thing,” Dylan said, turning back before the doors closed. “Have you seen Dante? Ruan’s looking for him.”

Ariana’s chest seized at the mention of his name and her hands got clammy. Could Dylan read her reaction to him? Was her attachment written all over her face? As obvious as it felt?

“No, haven’t seen him,” Ariana lied as her cheeks flushed. “But if I do, I’ll relay the message.”

“Ariana, mind if I give you a little advice?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t jump into anything too quickly with him.” Dylan paused as if trying to find the words that tasted just right. “Dante is . . . different than the rest of the vamps you’ve got here.”

“I know.” He challenged her. Protected her. Made her laugh and loosen up. He made her heart beat fast and her thoughts stream slow. Something she hadn’t discovered in all her years at Black Moon. Most of all, Dante didn’t treat her like anything she wasn’t. “That’s what I like about him best.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” With a smile, Dylan turned and strode down the hall.

Trying not to think about Dylan’s subtle warning, Ariana pulled her own cell out of her pocket and checked the time.

Damn it.
She wouldn’t have as much time in the library as she’d like.

The elevator whisked Ariana down to the lobby. When the doors opened she spilled out, making a mad dash for the library. As she passed the kitchen, she caught sight of Narci making a fresh batch of AB in back.

“May I?” Ariana asked, pointing to the bottles situated on the corner of the island. She hadn’t had much of anything today other than a swig of O mixed with Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

“Sure, hon,” Narci called over her shoulder. “But do you mind serving yourself tonight? I’m a little behind. That Dylan is driving me like a work horse.”

“You should be the one telling her what’s what around here.” Ariana grabbed the bottle closest to her. “If she’s working you too hard, tell her to take a chill. Tell her that comes from the squeaky wheel.”

“Thanks.” Narci nodded, buried in stacks of bottles. “I will.”

As Ariana pushed through the double doors, Narci called out, “Ariana, I almost forgot!”

Ariana turned back. “Yeah?”

“Echo stopped by and picked up his usual.”

“Come again?” Ariana’s stomach rolled. “Who brought him back into Black Moon?”

“I’m assuming the Primus. He’s the one who escorted him in.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Narci shrugged. “Echo wanted me to tell you on your way out that he’d meet you in the cemetery. He said he wanted to talk before your training session.”

There went the few extra minutes Ariana had to stop by the library. She huffed in disgust and pushed through the haven’s double doors, stepping into the morning sun.

If Echo wasn’t dead, buried six feet under with a tombstone that read
sorry son-of-a-bitch
, she wasn’t havin’ it.

Chapter Nineteen

“We are closer to the Ever After than we’ve ever been. Remain vigilant. Do not rejoice in violence, but be patient in the truth.”

W
ATCHER
A
RCHIVE, UPDATE

A
RIANA SWEPT INTO
the shadowed cloak of the forest, between two fuzzy fir trees arching overhead. The path was small and overgrown and wasn’t traveled by anyone other than the random teary-eyed mourner.

Exactly what Ariana looked for when choosing the training ground.

She hadn’t traveled more than a quarter mile before she picked up Echo’s pungent scent. As the path bent, sweeping around three towering evergreens that had bonded together at the trunks, she spotted Echo leaning against them.

His crimson locks looked black beneath the heavy canopy of the forest, his color paler than normal. Cargo pants and a bulky coat only made him look larger, if that was possible.

“Morning, Echo.” She passed by without meeting him eye to eye. “Don’t mind if I hope it’s your last.”

“Aw, come on Ari, you know I gotta do what I told. Just like you, I got a job to do.” He pushed off the tree and followed her closely, taking swigs on the black-rimmed bottle in his hand. It smelled rancid, like a gagging mix of oil and sewer. “I didn’t know what they was plannin’ to do. They said they wanna talk with you, that all. You gotta believe me.”

“I don’t have to do anything, Echo. You said you’d protect me and you didn’t, you said I’d be fine and I wasn’t. Forgive me for not hanging on your every word. It’s worth little more than shit now, don’t you think?”

“What’s you wanting me to do? Turn ’round on my family? Tell you to come to my compound so we could take a real close look at the mark on your arm? Nah, you wouldn’t have come. You’d put up a fight like you always do.”

“You should’ve warned me,” she said, picking up her pace. “The second your
family
said they wanted to talk to me, you should’ve said something.”

“I couldn’t Ari, couldn’t chance you sayin’ no.”

She spun around, finally meeting the red depths of his eyes. “Then when I asked you to accompany me on my last projection, you should’ve said no. You should’ve given me some kind of heads up or stayed the hell away from me.”

He shrugged big, stupid shoulders. “I wanted to make sure they take care of you right, get me? I carried you. Put you in that pit so you not get hurt. I protect you, but you no see it that way.”

“No, I don’t.” She spun on her heel and trudged down the path. “But I guess, in your own spineless way, you stuck around to take care of me. Pike would’ve gotten a rise out of dragging me through the mud.”

“Is that a thank you in there?”

“If that’s what you want to hear.” She chomped on the inside of her lip. “I guess so.”

Man, she really hated dishing out thanks when she didn’t feel righted yet. But what else could she do? Hold a grudge over Echo forever? He’d been her only friend through the years. And he’d disappeared during the commotion in the compound. He wasn’t the one who tried to roast her arm like a Ball Park Frank.

Echo patted her back. “I won’t be doing nothin’ like that again, Ari. Even if my word is throw away, just know I’m good. We’re good.”

Hell no, Echo wouldn’t be doing anything like that again. Just because Ariana squeezed out a smidgeon of thanks with a dash of forgiveness didn’t mean she wanted to project with him at her side again.

Up ahead, the fir trees broke into a small clearing, revealing the elder cemetery. Morning fog lingered above the headstones, shrouding the place in a rolling blanket of white. Headstones popped out of the moss like ivory-faced wildflowers, forming a wide circle around the outside of the grounds.

As the path ended, Ariana entered the cemetery and made her way to the alabaster tomb towering in the center. The elders had already arrived.

She did a quick count of ten, recognizing a few of the regulars right away.

“Why’d you drag us way out here?” Edmund asked from his perch on the nearest stone. “The vamps that showed up last night wouldn’t have bothered us. We could’ve stayed on the field.”

“I didn’t move our practice because of the vamps that were brought in. I moved it because this cemetery offers us the one thing we don’t have inside the haven.” She paused, waiting for someone to guess. When no one did, she said, “Seclusion. There are no cameras out here. There’s no electricity and no phones. More importantly, there are no distractions.”

The elders looked around, scanning the tree line behind them, the blank faces of the others. They had no clue how to get to the zen state necessary to effectively reveal their mawares.

They’d learn soon enough.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” She slipped out of her coat, rolled it up the best she could, and put in on the ground near the tomb. She watched closely as Echo hovered around the edge of the cemetery and plopped onto a round stone that wobbled when his weight hit. “Mind if we have some privacy, Echo?”

“Never minded me watchin’ before.”

“Never distrusted you before.” The words stung as they came out, buzzing against Ariana’s lips, but they were the truth. “I think it’d be best if you leave.”

He nodded slowly, looking as if he wanted to say something more. “I wait for you just outside the forest, okay? I want to talk more about your friend Dante, about us. There’s stuff you oughta know.”

She really couldn’t listen to what he had to say. Not now. Not when ten pairs of elder ears were honing in on their conversation.

“Fine, Echo,” she said, waving him away with her hand. “That’s fine.”

When she turned back to the group, they were still as stone, watching with eager eyes.

Expecting.

“Okay,” she said, taking a quick inventory of the group. “Now that we’re alone, why don’t you go ahead and take a seat.”

She motioned for the three regulars—Darcy, Thom, and Edmund—to sit on the tombstones around her and for the seven newbies to sit on the dirt-slathered steps climbing up to the tomb.

It’d been a month since her last session. Had she really stolen seven elders from the black market right beneath Juan Carlos’s nose? Somehow that didn’t seem right, but sure enough, as she scanned each of their faces, she remembered their journey from the black market to the projection ring, and into Black Moon.

Either Juan Carlos was as stupid as he looked or he knew what was going on. If he knew about her business there, why would he allow it? The more she thought about it, the more questions popped up.

“Mind if I join you?” a voice said from behind her, spinning her around.

“Ruan,” she said, spreading her arms to her sides. His elder vibe was strong, fresh. She could almost see the colors from his newly transitioned aura circling him—heavenly blue and pearly white. “Welcome. You’ve come to the right place.”

Smiling, he held up his hand to the group. “Hope you all don’t mind if I crash your little party.”

“Not at all,” Ariana answered for everyone. “We were just getting started.”

She was sure the group wouldn’t mind befriending another elder. And Ariana had to admit, she’d heard Ruan’s maware was special. That it wasn’t given to just anyone. Rumor around the Ever After was that it hadn’t been bestowed upon an elder in over a thousand years. Whatever maware he’d acquired was powerful . . .

She couldn’t wait to see what kind of show they had in store.

Ruan sat near the bottom of the stairs and kicked his feet on the step below him, hiking his knees to his chest. He was so large that the elder behind him couldn’t see and leaned around his massive shoulders for a better view. It wasn’t Ariana’s problem, so she moved on.

“Darcy, Thom, and Edmund have been in Black Moon three months, have taken six sessions from me, and are
this
close to controlling their mawares completely.” She pinched her fingers together and held them up. “Within a few months, you’ll be there, too. But you have to practice day and night. Give it all your energy, all your focus. You’ve got to want to flesh out your maware, to discover the secrets that lie inside you.”

Ruan cleared his throat. “Anyone ever discover and hone their maware faster than a few months?” He paused. “Like in a few days, let’s say?”

He was thinking about Savage, wanting to use his maware to assist in the battle to come. She could sense the excitement building in him, the determination written in the hard lines of his face. Did the other elders know about the imminent threat?

“No, I’m afraid not. Mawares are bestowed upon us in the Ever After as a sort of reward for living as long as we have, but you have to value the skill it takes to fully acquire them. Think of mawares like a box of See’s that have been gifted to you. You did something to earn that little box of chocolate and should savor them one by one. You wouldn’t receive a box only to tear open the packaging and wolf it down, would you?”

She eyed the group with squinted eyes, wondering if she’d just given the worst analogy on the planet. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this teaching stuff. She’d warned the Primus about her lack of instructional skills when he’d asked her to take on the position.

“I suppose it would depend on how intense my sweet tooth was,” Ruan said.

“Or how little you cared for chocolate in the first place. I’ll have to tell Eve to stick with cigars and wine.” She winked and turned back to her regulars. “Gentlemen, would you mind showing them what you’ve learned so far? I want to make sure we’re on an even playing field, no secrets, nothing held back.”

Darcy stood, his midnight black hair sweeping across his forehead. “I’ll go first.”

Ariana backed against the tomb, giving Darcy all the space he needed. Then she cleared her mind of anything and everything he could use against her.

He put his hand to his temple and pinched his eyes shut.

“You’ve had sex recently,” he said. Ariana froze. He pointed to Ruan without opening his eyes, and Ariana released the breath she held in her lungs. “I’d say two days ago. Last night, maybe.”

“Try an hour ago.”

Ariana shook her head, incredulous. “You and Eve just got here.”

Ruan shrugged. “Had to break in the place.”

She couldn’t judge him. Hell, if she had Dante at her disposal—in one of his better moods—she’d be breaking in every damned room in the haven.

“What else?” she asked Darcy, blushing from the knowledge of what had happened on her balcony. She fought hard to keep her walls up and solid.

“You in the back,” he said, blinking big brown eyes. “With the ponytail . . . you’re a virgin. And the guy next to you has wanted to get in your pants since you sat next to him.”

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s stop there,” Ariana said, jumping in. How could a vampire remain chaste for
four hundred years
? She’d obviously never run into someone magnetic, someone who seeped raw sexuality. Someone like Dante. “Can someone take a stab at Darcy’s maware?”

She tried not to focus on the elders in back, though their humiliation swept over her as thick as the fog.

“He can pick up sexual energy,” Ruan said, swiping his thumb across his jaw. “Don’t know how that can come in handy in a fight, but all right.”

“Not all mawares are used for fighting. Some are used to heal. Some to understand or release parts of the mind. Others don’t do much of anything other than clear the thoughts of the person you’re directing it at.” She paused, gauging the understanding of the group. “Thom, you’re up.”

He stood as Darcy reclaimed his stone. Thom knelt down, scraped his hands through the earth over leaves and dirt, and came up with a rock.

“I need a volunteer,” he said, tossing it in his hand.

After the embarrassment Darcy inflicted on the elders on the top step, no one piped up. Ariana couldn’t blame them.

“Oh, let’s not all jump up at once.” Edmund slid from his headstone and stepped to Thom’s side. “Let’s get this over with.”

Thom narrowed his onyx eyes to slits, then cocked back and hurled the rock, pitcher-style, right at Edmund’s chest. It hit Edmund hard, then dropped to the ground with a thud.

Edmund blinked and forced out a pathetic yawn. “You ready for this? I’ll count to three if you want.”

“Fuck you.” Thom crouched, his fists slowly clenching and unclenching.

With movement so quick Ariana barely tracked it, Edmund bent low, picked up the rock, and chucked it back at Thom. The rock spun through the air between them lightning fast. From such close range, it should’ve hit Thom square.

But Thom had the bead on Edmund like he knew what his reaction would be.

Because he did.

Without batting an eye or twitching a muscle, Thom snatched the rock out of the air and curled his fingers around it, crushing it to dust.

“Thought I might’ve had you that time,” Edmund said, returning to his tombstone, kicking his feet up. “You looked off your game tonight.”

“After last month’s incident I doubt he’ll be off his game again,” Ariana said. “Thom can pick up certain patterns in brain activity and—”

“I can see the future,” he interrupted. He bowed to the newbies, scraping his boots through the dust from the stone. “Well, at least I’ll be able to once I learn to control it. I can’t change what you’re going to do, and I don’t know what’s going to happen more than a few milliseconds ahead, but it at least gives me the chance to react.”

“Wicked,” Ruan said. “Like living in a déjà vu nightmare.”

“Except it doesn’t happen all the time,” Thom said. “Tonight the switch was flipped, but last month . . .” He craned his neck to the side, revealing a scar above his ear. “I didn’t think Edmund was going to throw the rock back and ended up catching it with my head instead of my hand.”

“But we’re working on it, and with a little more training you’ll be fine.” Ariana nodded to Edmund. “You’re up.”

He cleared his throat and stepped up, rubbing his hands together.

Ariana stepped further away.

Edmund noticed, setting his squinty coal eyes upon her. “I think I’ve got a handle on it this time. I’ve been practicing with houses of cards.”

Still didn’t mean she trusted him. Last month he’d nearly singed all their eyebrows off.