Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (24 page)

“God you make me so crazy,” he whispered.

Ari sighed, unable to talk, feeling as her senses tipped her over the edge. Suddenly Ragon grasped her shoulders, pulling her down on him as he let out a long moan. This time Ari kissed him, opening her eyes as she watched him orgasm and feeling herself also burst into pleasurable ecstasy.       

For a while the pair laid next to each other in bed. The power was still out and Ari relished in the solitude of their moment together. But there was so much going through her head. What had Chris done to Ragon, and why had April warned Ragon about Bridget? Thinking it was safer to bring up April’s warning, Ari decided to attack this question first.

“How did April know what Bridget was planning?” she asked. “Why did she warn you?”

“She overheard Bridget talking to someone about attacking you. She came to me and told me what Bridget was going to do. She said she owed you one.”

“So they aren’t friends anymore?” Ari asked, slightly surprised.

“Guess not. Bridget can’t be friends with anyone anymore.”

These words triggered something in her memory and Ari looked up at Ragon slightly confused.

“Bridget knew what I could do!” she exclaimed, remembering how Bridget had taunted her, purposefully keeping her distance during her attack.

“What? What do you mean?”

“She said that an old friend had come to see her and that they had said that I was
special
,” Ari explained.

“Did she say who?”

“No,” said Ari, shaking her head.

“It might have been the same person April overheard Bridget talking to. But who could it have been? Maybe someone the Ancients sent? Maybe the person who is going to be the New Vice Chancellor?”

“I thought…” Ari began to say, but her voice trailed off.

She’d been about to say that maybe Bridget had been speaking to Kiara. But that was impossible. Dead vampires didn’t speak to anyone and Kiara was most definitely dead.

“What?” Ragon asked.

“It’s stupid. I just thought maybe this has something to do with Kiara.”

“That’s impossible,” he said dismissively.

“I know, but you did say that Bridget and Kiara had been friends when you were… I just mean, what if Kiara told someone what I could do? Someone who wants revenge for Kara’s death and who also knows Bridget.”

“Kiara never had any friends, not real ones, and she’s dead,” he said. “And now Bridget is too. God Ari, I am so sorry! I can’t believe that Bridget attacked you!”

“She said that she’d noticed we weren’t together. I thought maybe you had spoken with her.”

Ragon let out a mirthless laugh.

“Once again you are hurt and once again it is my fault. Maybe the wraith was right,” he said.

Ari jolted at these words. 

“In case you have forgotten,” she said, unable to keep the anger out of her voice, “but it’s my destiny to be involved with vampires. Besides,” she added, taking in a deep breath, “Chris wasn’t right. He attacked us.”

“Us?” asked Ragon, looking at her sideways.

Ari sighed, her hand reaching up absently to touch the bump which had formed when Chris had flung her across the room.

“Did he hurt you?” asked Ragon, his face set in a snarl.

“I don’t think he meant to but when you two were fighting… he kind of went weird, almost dark, like he had changed. I don’t think he knew what he was doing.”

“And he has the audacity to suggest that he is normal?” asked Ragon.

Ari blushed and felt her heart lurch in her chest.

“But what happened with Chris? How did he make you bleed like that? I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Ari.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

Chapter 10- School Tribunal

It was a week and a half later when the coven felt the repercussions of Ragon’s actions for killing Bridget. Ari had been asleep next to Ragon in Cruor halls, when there had been a firm knock on the door. The surprise from this interruption was plain on Ragon’s face, but he got out of bed and blurred over to the door, quickly throwing it open.

“Yes?” Ragon asked.

Ari couldn’t see who was standing at the door, but this thought was lost to her when she saw the stricken look on Ragon’s face as he turned around. Clutched in his trembling hands was an envelope.

“What is it?” she said, sitting up in bed as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes.

“I have been called for an arraignment.”

“What?” Ari asked, racing over to Ragon and tearing the piece of paper out of his hands as she read the note out loud:

Mr Ragon Young,

You have been summoned for arraignment by the vampire student council. Please be present this afternoon at 3.30pm in the administration room of Cruor Halls, where you will be questioned by a group of your peers regarding the murder of Bridget Harp. Your source, Ariana Sol, is also required for testimony.

Regards

James Frater, Acting Vice Chancellor

Pasteur Institute       

“But how can they know?” Ari asked, glancing nervously up at Ragon. “And who the hell is James Frater?”

Ragon had moved to stand by the window. He was looking out of it, pulling the shutters open, just as small trickles of rain splattered against the glass. When he looked over to Ari, his normally green eyes were grey, mirroring the stormy clouds outside.

“I don’t know,” he said, reaching for his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Sending a message to everyone in the coven, asking them to meet us at the Three Prong Trek,” Ragon explained. “We need to work out what the hell is going on.”

Following Ragon’s hurried text message, the coven met. Though Ari had been nervous about the letter and its implications, she had not fully understood the seriousness of the situation. This however had been made clear as the conversation with the coven progressed. 

“What’s going on?” asked Ryder, leaning casually against a large conifer that lined the path of the Three Prong Trek.

It was no longer raining, though thick storm clouds swirled above, threatening to burst open at any moment and soak all those beneath. The ground was muddy under foot, and the dark green canopy was soaked with tiny droplets of rain, still clinging to the many leaves from the storm that had savaged the Isle of Man for the past week. All around the normally frosty forest was windswept leaves and large branches, while a few small trees had yielded their position in the woods and were now laid bent over and broken.

Everyone was there except Riley and Patrick. Clyde had said that he didn’t want Riley getting involved with vampire business and Ari, as well as the rest of the coven, agreed.

“Where’s Patrick?” Ari asked, looking over at Ryder in confusion.

Ryder shrugged, saying, “I don’t know. We haven’t exactly been getting on.”

“Yea but I am here for Ragon,” someone said, and Patrick appeared suddenly in the clearing, glaring at Ryder.

Ari hung her head, ashamed. Preoccupied with her clinical rotations and the drama with Bridget, Ragon and Chris, Ari hadn’t had time to speak with Ryder at all since the fight involving Patrick’s maker, Cornel Green. The fact that Ryder had messaged her a week or so ago suddenly dawned on her, and she felt inwardly furious at not being there for her friend when he needed her.

“I was summoned by the vampire student council,” Ragon said, breaking the silence.

“What?” Clyde asked, stepping closer to Ragon and squinting at him, as though waiting for him to burst into laughter.

“I got the letter half an hour ago. James Frater, the new Vice Chancellor, said that is was to do with Bridget’s murder,” Ragon explained.

“Jesus,” said Sandra, inching closer and resting her hand reassuringly on Ragon’s shoulder. “And he used the word
murder
, not disappearance; that’s not good.”

“But what can they do to us?” asked Ari, a little confused by the covens obvious concern.

“Us?” said Clyde.

“Ari was summoned too,” Ragon explained.

“What?” said Sandra, her deep southern accent giving a twang to her voice, so that she sounded drawn out and worried.

“Maybe they just want to find out what you know about Bridget’s, err, death,” Thomas suggested. “You were honours partners.”

“What he knows about her death? You mean asides from the fact that Ragon killed the bitch?” said Sandra, her voice now sarcastic.

Thomas frowned before looking over at Ragon and asking, “What do we know about James Frater?”

A long pause followed this, after which Ragon finally said, “I’ve never heard of him.”

“The Ancients sent-” Ari started to say, stopping herself far too late, when she remembered that it had been Chris’s dad who had told her that the Ancients had sent a new Elder, when she, Lea and Chris had been trying to warn Natalie to stay away from the Pasteur Institute.

“What?” Ragon asked, whipping around to stare at her. “Do you know something about this?”

“Um yea,” said Ari, trying hard to dilute the guilty sound in her voice. “Chris’s dad-” she began, but Clyde cut her off.

“-you mean the wraith,” he spat, looking at Ari alarmed.

No one in the coven had spoken to Chris since he had attacked Ragon. Ragon had even reverted to calling Chris ‘the wraith’, something which Ari felt was unnecessary, though she didn’t dare correct him or tell him off for it. Even Ari had kept her distance, which wasn’t hard, seeing as Chris had been obviously avoiding her also. Though she saw him around campus, at lectures and at the cafeteria, neither acknowledged the others presence.

“Yea,” Ari admitted, her feet digging into the muddy ground. “Anyway, Chris’s dad, the wraith, wanted Chris to go with him. He said that the Ancients knew about the waeres and that they were sending a new Vice Chancellor.

“When did you learn of this?” asked Thomas, sounding oddly formal.

“Um, well,” said Ari, purposefully avoiding Clyde and Ragon’s eye, “after the waere searches started, I went into the forest with Lea and Chris, looking for Natalie and-”

“-you did what?” said Ragon. 

“Let her finish. We need to hear this,” said Thomas, nodded that Ari should continue.

“Well, we sort of ran into Chris’s father. He put a spell on Lea, made her good magic go to her skin, and told Chris that he wouldn’t be able to touch her, because his magic was evil.”

“There’s a surprise,” Ragon said quickly, but fell silent when Thomas glared at him.

“I think he wanted to Chris to go with him, but Chris refused,” Ari added. “But before he left, Chris’s dad said that it wasn’t safe for Chris to stay here anymore. He said that the Ancients were sending a new Vice Chancellor, and that they were putting into motion plans that they had been working on for decades.”

“And you decided not to tell us?” said Clyde, his mouth open in disbelief.

“I just thought…” began Ari, uncertain of what it was exactly that she wanted to say.

She had not told the coven about this because it had been Riley who had asked her to warn Natalie, and she had known how much trouble she would be in if Clyde found out. Now she realised how stupid keeping this secret was. If the Ancients knew about waeres, then Riley was in danger, even if she couldn’t shift into an animal. And what would the Ancients do if they found out that Riley was pregnant, carrying the baby of a vampire?

“So, what do we do?” Clyde asked, staring from Ari then over to Ragon.

“What can we do?” said Ragon, reaching for Ari’s hand and gripping it tightly.

“You could run,” Sandra suggested.

“But you didn’t do anything wrong,” Ryder proclaimed. “Bridget attacked Ari and so you attacked back. It was self-defence.”

“They won’t see it like that and you know it,” said Patrick, sounding pestilent. “Did I not teach you about the Final Death Laws? Vampires aren’t allowed to kill other vampires. Even if Ari is Ragon’s source, it wouldn’t matter. He still broke the law.”

Ragon nodded grimly and added, “They will have my head for this. It’s treason.”

“Riley and I can’t stay here anymore either, not if the Ancients know about waeres. I can’t risk them finding out about her,” said Clyde, straining his neck back towards the campus, as if he desperately wanted to race to Riley’s side.

“You have to leave, now,” said Thomas, and after a moment Sandra nodded, moving over to her mate as she placed her hand into his. “If the new Vice Chancellor belongs in the Ancient’s ranks, then they will use any excuse to execute you. They know of your ties with Ari.”   

“It’s decided then,” said Clyde. “You and Ari leave for the barge. Riley and I will follow in a few hours. What the rest of you do is up to-”

“-were coming with you,” said Sandra, cutting Clyde off before he could finish his sentence.

“Ok then, you two wait a couple of days and then come find us,” said Clyde, before touching his hand to his chin, as though deep in thought. “But I don’t know if we can all stay together. We’re such a large coven; it won’t take the Ancients long to find us if we remain together. Remember what happened in England at Ragon’s estate? Astel found us almost the moment we arrived. If we split up, we have a chance. Riley and I can go to Ireland. I have friends there who can help keep us safe.”

“And Ryder, Patrick?” asked Ragon, looking at the pair quickly.

For a moment Ryder looked hopefully into Patrick’s eyes until Patrick said, “I will have to talk to Mark,” at which point Ryder looked away sadly.

An uncontrollable shiver rushed through Ari. This morning everything had been perfect; she was studying vet, she had woken up next to the man she loved, and now her entire world had been turned upside. How had this happened? How had they gotten here? Was there really no alternative? Would she always be on the run, hiding from the monsters who had wanted her dead since she was a baby? All because she had powers, powers which could destroy the Ancients, along with every other vampire. But she could barely control her powers. Sure, she might be able to freeze things, but the real power she had, the ability to burst into sunshine, that gift she had no control over.

What she needed, she realised, was to learn how to control her powers. She needed to know everything she could about being the Grandor Descendant. If she really was as powerful as the Ancient’s feared, then she should be able to protect herself, and the people she loved. But she didn’t have time to learn how to control her powers. They had been summoned to the arrangement this afternoon! Why had she wasted so many weeks studying and pretending to be normal? She could have been learning how to control her gifts, and then they would never be in this predicament. Pulling her from these thoughts, a sudden sharp pain struck at Ari’s palm; when she looked down however, nothing was there.