Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (19 page)

“Nothing!” he replied.

“Well then, why would Mark say that Glenn was sneaking out to see you?” she asked.

“That’s bullshit,” said Ryder, his voice angry. “This is the first time I have seen him since last week, and I wasn’t sleeping with him… I just took some blood from him. Who the hell is this Cornel Mark Green anyway? How does he know about vampires?”

“He’s Patrick’s maker,” said Ragon, his voice slow and tired.    

“I have to go find Patrick and explain,” Ryder said, before racing away.

For a moment Glenn stared after Ryder but then shrugged, walking back over to the bar where a few sailors were shotting a thick green liquid, which Ari thought looked horribly like absinthe.  

“So,” said Sandra, leaning in to take Ari’s arm, “Ragon, are you going to tell us what the hell happened between you and Bridget?”

“Sandra, mind your own business for once,” yelled Ragon, and Sandra stood suddenly, quickly followed by Thomas.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” said Thomas, and he glared at Ragon.

“Yea,” said Ari, standing also. “It’s not Sandra’s fault that you decided to keep this from me.”

Ragon looked imploring up at Ari, but she turned away from him.

“I’m going back to my room,” Ari said to no one in particular, trying to keep her voice calm as she walked away.

“Ari, honey,” said Sandra, racing to catch up with her, “you want some company walking back to your dorm?”

“No, it’s ok. I think I just need a moment to cool my head.”

All the way out of the club, ferocious images of Ragon and Bridget forced their way into Ari’s mind. Why would Ragon keep this part of his past a secret from her? He must have known that she would find out eventually. For God sake, Bridget lived with him in Cruor halls, hell she was his thesis partner. Then a truly horrible thought rushed at her, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. What if it was more than just a one night fling a century ago? What if Ragon had been with Bridget since they had come to the Pasteur Institute? She shivered as she thought about this. All the late night study sessions the pair had shared together, preparing for their thesis, and the way that Bridget had leaned in so intimately to speak with him.

When she was walking past Cruor halls, she sensed someone behind her and spun around to see Ragon. She had been expecting him to follow her, but still had no idea what to say to him.  

“I’m so sorry Ariana. I never meant for you to find out about Bridget this way. Are you mad at me?” he asked, looking at down at his feet.

Ari considered his question. Was she mad at him? Yes, but was it fair? Well, that depended on whether or not this was just some stupid mistake he had made in his past and not wanted to tell her about, or whether it was something that was still going on and he was deliberately hiding from her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I, I…” Ragon stammered, his eyes glancing nervously around the heavily shadowed path, “can we talk about this back in your room?”

“No. Were you ever going to tell me?”

Ragon looked down at his feet and said, “I wanted to. It’s just… I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You should have told me.”

“I didn’t want to-”

“-hurt me,” she said flatly.

Ragon nodded dumbly.

“Well it’s a little too late for that,” she said, pushing past him as she moved in the opposite direction.

“Wait,” he said, reaching for her hand.

“Don’t,” she said, shaking her head as she pulled her hand free of him.   

Ari walked away, still shaking her head, her anger boiling to the surface. It was only when she squinted and saw the club in the distance, that she realised her fight with Ragon had spun her around, literally. She wanted desperately to go back to her dorm room, but not if that mean crossing paths with Ragon again. With her head held high, Ari stormed back towards the club, thinking that at the very least she could have a drink to help wash away the bitter taste in her mouth, and perhaps even drown out the image of Ragon and Bridget together.

When Ari walked into the campus club, she was relieved to see that Chris was still sitting at the table outside. Walking first purposefully towards the bar, she ordered herself two drinks, downed one of them then moved over to Chris.

“Is it Monday already?” said Chris, winking when Ari sat down, already half way through her second drink.

“Huh?”

“When you left, you said you would be seeing me on tomorrow... you know, for our pathology rotation.”

“Oh, right,” said Ari, sucking on a piece of ice in her mouth.

“Are you ok?”

Ari stared at Chris blankly. She was rewording her sentence in her head and at the same time, appreciating the buzzing feeling her first drink had imparted.

“It’s just, Ragon,” she said, now crunching down on the ice cube in her mouth. “You heard what I found out.”

“Yea, I’m sorry. It must be a bit of a shock, but, is it something that happened a long time ago or something that has been going on?”

“I don’t know,” said Ari, angry that she hadn’t asked Ragon this when she had spoken to him outside.

“Oh well-”

“-I don’t really want to talk about it,” she said quickly, cutting Chris off; thinking about Bridget and Ragon was making her feel sick again.

Six rum and cokes later, Chris finally had to resort to dragging Ari out of the campus club.

“No wait,” she slurred, “I want to dance with Peter and Pip.”

“Trust me, I am doing you a favour. Come on,” he added, reaching for Ari and pulling her away from the dance floor, much to Peter, Perry and Pip’s annoyance. “You’re going to have a killer headache and you have your driving lesson tomorrow, and we have our first day of our amazing pathology rotation. Remember? I think I should take you back to your dorm.”

“You know, Ragon only booked,” she started to say, but hiccupped loudly, “booked me in for that lesson, because he didn’t want you driving me around the campus. What a joke,” she hiccupped again, “especially seeing as he has probably been-”

“-Ari don’t. You’ve just had too much to drink.”

“Me?” asked Ari, her hands on her chest as she stared at Chris incredulously. “I’ve only had like one drink.”

“No. You’ve had like six drinks.”

“Yea, but they were only small drinks,” she said, swaying as she spoke.

“Come on, back to Omega with you.”

Ari stared at Chris, her mouth slightly open, but then she allowed him to direct her away from the club. The pair was half way back to Omega halls when Ari tripped on something and fell down. At least she thought she tripped on something, in truth she may have simply had one to rum and cokes and simply lost her balance.

“Jesus,” said Chris, dropping to his knees and joining Ari on the damp grass. “Are you alright?”  

Ari coughed lightly then let small tears run down her face. Was she ok? No. Not even a little bit. How could Ragon do this to her?  

“Ari, you just need to give it some time,” said Chris, gently brushing the grass out of her face. “You only found out about this tonight. I’m sure there is a perfect good explanation for why-”

“-time… I don’t have time Chris! Vampires live forever and I, I’m a human. Maybe, maybe I’m not supposed to be with a vampire. Maybe I am supposed to be with someone normal.”

Without realising it, she let her hand rest near Chris’s, so that their fingertips kissed in the wet grass.

Chris looked down at her hand, then back into her eyes. Ari felt her head spin as her face flashed hot. Chris leaned towards her, closing the distance between them, so that when she breathed in, all she could smell was the sweet scent of his deodorant.

“I’m normal… sort of,” he said, and he reached out a hand to touch her cheek, then pulled her even closer and kissed her.

Ari felt the desire behind the kiss and returned it. With her eyes closed, she let her hands spring up to pull his beanie away, freeing his dark hair which she twined her fingers through. Their tongues danced in each other’s mouths and Ari found him leaning over her, pushing his weight down on hers as she fell back against the damp grass, his hand jutting out just in time to catch her head. A moment later and his hands were running down her chest, searching for the buttons of her shirt as he undid them. At the same time there were soft kisses trailing down her neck, sending shivers down her body. But the lips behind the kisses were not cold, they were warm, and Ari startled by their touch.   

Slowly Ari opened her eyes, expecting to see green eyes, but no; the eyes which looked down lustfully at her were light blue. It was Chris.

“Stop. We shouldn’t have,” said Ari, and she watched as darkness seemed to cover Chris’s face, hiding his eyes; when she looked past him to see what had cast the shadow, her heart skipped a beat. “Ragon,” she breathed; he was standing behind Chris, his mouth open in surprise, his eyes locked on Ari’s in a look of absolute revulsion and grief.

What was she doing? Why was she kissing Chris? She was drunk, had been angry with Ragon, but that didn’t mean… didn’t excuse this behaviour. How could she have been so stupid? How could she risk everything that she and Ragon had for a drunken kiss?

Ragon, perhaps having the same thoughts, closed his eyes heavily, as if the mere sight of Ari was heartbreaking, then blurred away.

“Ragon wait,” she yelled, scrambling to her feet and racing after him.

She felt Chris reach out to grab her hand.

“Ari wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” said Chris, and he pulled her so that she was back on the ground with him. “Please, I just thought… I mean I thought you just said-”

“-no Chris,” she said quickly, “you wait,” and she flung her hands into the air and stopped time, quickly racing in the direction that Ragon had disappeared.

Ari ran as fast as her legs would carry her to Cruor halls. She had no idea where Ragon was, and hoped that he might have retreated back to his dorm room.  

She hammered on Ragon’s door for a full minute before someone down the corridor poked their head out of their room and said, “Clearly he’s not here.”

Hanging her head, Ari moved back outside and ran to the campus club, thinking he might have gone back there. It was late, and when she got to the club, Ari saw that most of the party goers had left. She raced around the club, hoping to see Ragon or any of the coven members, but only strangers faces stared back at her. Sighing loudly, Ari retrieved her phone and tried calling Ragon. On the second ring he hung up.