A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (27 page)

Still carrying her, he 
pulled her legs up so that she was straddling him, while he moved backwards to sit in his chair. Ari made to move, but Ragon placed one hand onto her shoulder, and lent up to kiss her slowly. With the same slow movement, he traced his spare hand down her breasts. For a while he teased her, using the back of his fingertips to brush along her thighs, admiring the way she thrust towards him as he did so, her back arched. He continued this until Ari’s moans were so loud, that she thought the neighbours would hear them.

“You’re not going to freak out and leave are you?” she said, gasping for air and letting out a long moan.

Placing a finger over her lips, he whispered, “If I give you what you want, will you try to be quiet?”

Ari nodded enthusiastically, and as soon as Ragon began rubbing her clit
, she used her hand to cover her mouth, trying to stop herself from screaming as she shook from the ecstasy of her orgasm. Instantly Ari reached out for him, hungry for more.

“Are you sure?”
he asked, holding her chin.

Ari nodded.
Ragon’s eyes grew wide and hopeful, and still holding onto her chin, he kissed her. Choosing to leave that hand on Ari’s face, Ragon moved his spare hand to Ari’s legs. He was gripping them tightly.

“You’re sure?” he asked again, but Ari didn’t reply, merely kissed him harder.

In an instant Ragon was entering her, slowly pushing inside and filling her. He paused, looking at her in concern, wanting to check that she didn’t want him to stop. The second he had stopped however, Ari reached behind him and scraped her fingernails hard against his back. Though she was pressing down with all her strength, when she withdrew her fingers, she saw that the nails were blunted, as if Ragon’s skin was sandpaper. Still, it had the desired effect. Ragon had grasped one hand onto the small of her back, and the other around her neck and pushed further into her. Instantly Ragon lifted them out of the chair, and pressed her against one of the bookshelves, so that many fluttering pages serenaded them.

Lost in the euphoria of his own pleasure,
Ragon began blurring in and out of her as he reached climax. In response Ari began moaning and Ragon, unable to stop himself, let his fangs un-sheath, so that large white canines faced her. Ari hadn’t missed this, but she was too lost in her own orgasm to be fearful; all she felt was wave after wave of pleasure writhe through her.

Suddenly h
is eyes widened, and Ari knew that he was considering biting her. She wondered how much different her blood would taste now, in the throes of passion, when it was full of serotonin, adrenaline and other hormones and molecules. Ragon seemed to be concentrating very hard, his eyes darting away as he tried to focus on anything other than Ari’s neck. Biting his bottom lip he leaned in close and kissed her softly on the lips, trying desperately to keep his fangs at bay. Ari kissed back hungrily, feeling the sharp edge of his canines with the tip of her tongue, as his thrusting slowed and finally stopped.

“Wow,”
said Ari, her cheeks bright pink.

Ragon
did not reply at first and Ari looked at him in concern.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“I am… that was… amazing.”

Ari
smiled and moved over to his desk, sitting down on the chair and gathering the dress she had worn.

“Here,” said Ragon, helping her to slip the black gown back on. “I don’t think you need the wings anymore.”

“Oh I don’t know,” said Ari, grinning down at the feathered accessory to her Halloween costume. “How else am I supposed to get out of here?”

Ragon smi
led at her sternly and then reached for the wings and handed them to her, saying, “You could always climb out of the bathroom window and crawl along the rooftop again.”

Ari grinned and punched him softly in the arm, before her eyes traced down the spiral stairs.

“You’re right,” she said, snatching the wings off him. “Flying is a lot safer.”

“I can think of another way,” he said, his eyes darting from the spiral stair case and over to a window in the corner of the room.

After that he reached for his pants, pulled them on and then grabbed Ari’s arm.

“What are you doing?” she asked, as he directed her towards the window.

Ragon didn’t respond but swept her into his arms and opened the window. Ari looked down and shut her eyes.

“Trust me,” he whispered, and
leapt through the window and into the night.

Ari felt them land smoothly on the back veranda a moment later. Quickly Ragon released her and then, his hand gripped tightly to her wrist, pulled her back inside. Ari managed one fleeting glimpse of Sandra and Larissa sitting on the couch, before Ragon and steered her back into her bedroom and locked the door. 

Ari watched as he moved into the bathroom and turned the shower on. Her eyes bulged as he took off his pants, before moving into the shower.

Soon the bathroom was foggy enough for her to remove her dress without feeling embarrassed. She had barely slipped off her dress however, when Ragon swung the shower door open and negated this comforting fact.

“You know,” he said, smiling at her, “you don’t need to be embarrassed.
You’re so beautiful.”

Ari beamed up at him and took his hand in hers,
“You have to promise me that you won’t hurt me,” she said.

Ragon flipped her hand so that the scar on
her wrist, left by his fangs, was thrown into focus.

“I don’t want
anything to happen to you,” he said. “I never meant to hurt you.”

Ari pulled her hand away, “No, I don’t mean that. I’m human an
d you’re a vampire. I know
us
being together… it will be hard. But you can’t give up every time I get a paper-cut.”

“Matthew d
id more than just-” Ragon began to say, but Ari cut him off.

“
-that’s exactly what I mean… I can survive getting the occasional bruise, but I can’t handle you leaving me when you think you’re trying to keep me safe. You get so upset whenever something happens to me, but I’m stronger than you think.

“I’ll try
.”

Ari nodded, happy that her words had broken through Ragon’s tough exterior.

For a long time she remained still, and all the events from the last few months came rushing past, culminating with what had happened tonight. She finally knew what had happened to her parents, and why she had been sent to an orphanage. She had not been abandoned. But with this knowledge came a new question
; how had she managed to get away from Kiara? What had happened tonight?

“What do you think happened tonight?”
she asked quietly.

“
I don’t know. Why would Kiara risk attacking you at the Elder’s party?” Ragon asked. “Especially with Shok around.”

At the mention of the Ancient
’s assassin, Ari shivered.

“
Kiara said she had promised someone to kill me when I was a baby,” she replied.

“Pr
omised who?”

“
I don’t know; she just said she was killing two birds with one stone,” she replied.

“
But how did you get away… you said she froze- I don’t understand,” asked Ragon.

“Yep, just like a statue.”

“
But how did you do it?” he asked. “Was it like a Thurston trick or-”

“Thurston?”

“Howard Thurston- the magician,” said Ragon.

“Never heard of him.”

“Hmmm, I seem to be showing my age,” he mused, laughing lightly, “he was famous in the early nineteen hundreds. But, anyway, how did it happen- exactly?”

“I don’t know how; I closed my eyes and then when I opened them, she was stuck in pause.”

These words had barely left her lips, when a new fear washed over her; where was Kiara now?
Was Kiara still frozen at the Elder’s Halloween party? And had happened; how had Kiara frozen? Had the Elders perhaps found Kiara? Were they, at this very moment, questioning her to find out what had happened to her?

“Have we heard from Sameth,” she asked, recalling how he had stayed behind to see what had happened to Kiara.

Ragon didn’t seem to be listening shook his head dismissively.

He frowned
at her and said, “I have never heard of a mortal with powers. I mean witches and wraiths have powers, but I don’t know… those powers are usually inherited; if your parents had powers, they would have been able to protect themselves from Kiara. Do you think you would be able to do it again?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really know how it happened the
first time. I was really scared and she just… stopped.”

“Have you ever done anything like it before?” he questioned.

Ari thought for only a moment, shaking her head in a firm no.

“But wouldn’t you think that if I could stop time, that I would have done it when I was being attacked by those guys at campus?” she asked.
“Or when Matthew and Kiara kidnapped me?”

“I don’t know
.”

“And what did Sandra mean when she said the Elders got angry for two vamps using blood candy?” asked Ari.

At mention of this word, Ragon’s eyes became thin slits and he hissed loudly.

“Blood candy is
basically vampire drugs. No one knows how it is made or where it comes from, but for the past few years it has been growing in popularity. I have seen its affect’s on vampires and it’s not pretty. Picture a heroin addict and add fangs. Blood candy is addictive, and… it changes you.” 

Ari shivered at th
e mental image.

Chapter 17
- In The Aftermath

That night Ragon remained with her. Despite all that had happened, Ari had fallen asleep relatively quickly against his cold chest. It was around dinner time when the pair awoke the next day. Ari startled when she looked over and saw Ragon, but then a wide smile spread across her face and she beamed at him, before trying to sneak from the covers, to put clothing on. When she returned a few minutes later, wearing a pair of jeans and a knitted peach jumper, Ragon was sitting up in bed.

“Hello,"
he said, and Ari let her grin extend across her face.

She inclined her head into a shy nod. She wanted to race from where she stood, framed in the bathroom door, and into Ragon’s arms.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, and all manner of erotic thoughts swept over Ari, so that she bit her bottom lip, trying desperately not to respond candidly.

“
You ok?” he added, looking at her with concern.

How stupid was she being? She had not managed to utter a single word to the gorgeous
vampire she had made love to. What was wrong with her? She opened her mouth, ready to speak, when Ragon blurred from the bed, and stood next to her. Ari felt the air that he displaced swish hard against her face, blowing her hair mindlessly. In front of her, Ragon was naked, standing and staring at her in confusion.

“Ari?” he asked, and Ari forced herself to look at him.

Just say something, she thought. Stop staring at him like a mental patient and speak.

“Hi,” she muttered, before looking away and shaking her head angrily.

Hi, that was what she decided to say. Hi!

Ragon cocked his head and
laughed a little as he said, “Hi.”

Ari forced herself to look over at him and i
mmediately her eyes fell below his waist.

“I’m going to get some clothes,”
he said, kissing her swiftly on the cheek before racing from her room, a towel wrapped tightly round his waist.

“Wait,” he sa
id, his hand paused on the door. “You’re not going to go anywhere are you? Freeze any vampires; anything like that?”

Ari smiled and reached over to her bed to throw a p
illow at him. He dodged it expertly and then laughing, left. Ari watched him disappear with a sick feeling in her stomach. What was she? Twelve years old? She shook her head again and moved out of her room and into the kitchen, thinking perhaps that food might help abate her strange mood.

Sandra was sitting at a stool near the kitchen and beamed at Ari when she saw her.

“How you feeling sugar?” she asked.

Ari’s eyes were no longer red and puffy from when she had been crying
the previous night, rather her cheeks were rosy and there was a spring in her step, as though a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She felt a little guilty for being so overjoyed after her and Ragon’s union, having only just learnt the truth about her parent’s deaths. But knowing how they had died didn’t bring them back, and it didn’t change the fact that they had died over twenty years ago; their absence, while being horrible, had been something that she had learnt to live with a long time ago.

“Better,”
said Ari, surveying the room.

When her eyes
reached the couch in the living room, she saw Clyde, and instantly looked back towards the fridge. She didn’t know why she couldn’t look him in the eye; it wasn’t out of embarrassment, or anger, or any emotion that she was sure of. She had just begun buttering some toast, when from the corner of her eye, she saw Clyde blur out of the room. At that exact moment, Larissa moved to sit next to Sandra.   

“I hope you didn’t freeze him during…”
Larissa whispered to Ari, before her and Sandra began giggling.

Ari reached across the counter and pinched Larissa hard on the shoulder.
At the same time, Sandra, who had begun laughing even harder at the look of indifference on Larissa’s face, slipped off the chair she had been sitting on, and landed heavily on the floor, all the while continuing to laugh.

Ari had just helped Sandra onto her feet when
loud voices trailed from down the hallway. 

“Are we going to talk about what happened
last night?” Sameth asked briskly.

Ari l
istened intently.

“But how do we even know if she has un-frozen? Maybe we don’t have to worry about her anymore?”
a deep booming voice replied, Cambridge.

“
She must have; when I went to check on her, she was gone,” Sameth’s worried voice replied. “But how did Ari do it?”

Ari had
just piled her mouth full of biscuits when Sameth, Ragon and the rest of the coven appeared from the hallway. Aberrantly she tried to cover her mouth, suddenly self-conscious in front of Ragon. Ragon looked a little surprised to see Ari sitting at the kitchen, but this was nothing to the narrowed eyes of Clyde, who was staring at Sameth unblinkingly.

“Was Kiara the only thing to freeze
last night?” Sameth questioned.

Ari’s mouth was
still half full of biscuits when she mumbled, “Revrething roun me storped.” Then seeing the perplexed look on Sameth’s face, she swallowed her mouthful and added, “Everything around me stopped; there was no wind, and some flowers that had been falling were frozen in mid-air.”

“So it’s not just vampires;
she has this power over everything,” Sameth mused. “And you didn’t say anything before it happened? Didn’t perform a spell?”

“I just threw my hands into the air,” said Ari.

“But she can’t be a witch,” said Thomas, “at least I have never heard of one who can do magic simply by waving their hands. Normally they need tools, spell books, incantations. What Ari is doing… it’s instinctual.”

“Maybe it wasn’t Ari
that stopped Kiara?” asked Larissa.

“Then who
?” said Ragon.

“I don’t know, but I have an idea how to find out,”
said Larissa, a mischievous grin that might have rivalled one of Clyde’s cheeky expressions, spreading across her face.

A large bang signified the slamming of a door, and two more people joined the conversation
- Ryder and Patrick. Until then, Ari had entirely forgotten about seeing Ryder the previous night, but now this rushed back to her and she was furious. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Patrick; it was just that she didn’t like the thought of Ryder being a blood bag. Still, blood donor or not, it didn’t seem that Ryder was too upset. He was smiling at Ari, the large dimples on either side of his face beaming out at her.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time for you to be here?” she said
to Ryder.

Her words felt strange and cold on her lips but
she had to say them. She couldn’t let Ryder be dragged into her problems; what if something happened to him? What if he got hurt?

At her words
Ryder’s face had fallen, but before he could speak Patrick had said, “He knows about us.”

“What?”

“It’s ok,”
said Ryder. “I think it’s awesome!” 

“It’s not awesome!”
said Ari, turning to stare incredulously at Ragon. “Did you know about this?”

Ragon shook his head
, but did not appear to be surprised.

“Can I have a word,” Ryder said to Ari, taking her by the elbow and directing her to the veranda.

As soon as they were outside, Ryder cl
osed the door and rounded on her.

“What’s wrong?
Why are you acting like this?” he asked.

“What’s wrong?
Many, many things are wrong, the least of which is that you seem to be perfectly fine with all of this.”

“Yea I am fine with it,”
he replied. “You’re dating one of them; why do you get to be fine with them and not me?”

“I didn’t choose this,”
she said, pacing around the veranda, “and besides, I have known Ragon for a hell of a lot longer than you’ve known Patrick.” As Ari spoke, she saw a hopeless look settle in Ryder’s eyes and she looked away, suddenly ashamed. “I guess it would be a bit hypocritical for me to tell you not to sleep with a vampire.”

“What? Patrick is a vampire?” asked Ryder, his eyes wide with shock.

Ari looked back in horror, until Ryder burst into laughter.

“You use to be more
difficult to trick,” he said, when he had finished laughing. “I know that this is all new and frankly bizarre, but I really like Patrick; it feels… right with him.”

Ari lo
oked down at the ground and her eyes grew wide. What did Ryder mean ‘it just felt right’? Was he being lulled by Patrick? Had Patrick bound him to his will, the way that Ragon had told her that vampire’s who’d bitten their victims could?

“You don’t know what you’re saying!” said Ari, her eyes
now raking all over Ryder. “Has Patrick bitten you? That’s how vampires control humans.”

Ryder couldn’t help but look down at his body, but quickly shot his eyes back up to Ari, thrusting his wrist out to Ari
as he spoke.  

“See
; not a mark on me!” he said, showing Ari his exposed skin.

Ari
nodded slowly but couldn’t help notice the way Ryder’s eyes shifted nervously.

“Would you like to do a strip search?” asked Ryder.

“I’m just worried about you,” she admitted.

“And that’s why I love you munchkin,”
said Ryder, moving over to her and pinching her cheeks hard. “But unless you have a secret crush on Patrick, then I’m not backing down.”

Ari huffed loudly but moved ove
r to Ryder and hugged him warmly, her eyes raking his neck for any bites as she snuggled against him.

“I don’t think Patrick would be that into you anyway,” he said laughing.

Half an hour later
the coven had left the house and moved to the backyard. It was cold outside; the sky had long since turned black and become sprinkled with stars.

“What are we
doing out here?” Ari asked, turning to face Ragon, her hands on her hips.

Ari had asked Ragon repeatedly
what was going on. Everyone except for Patrick was gathered under an enormous frangipani tree, while Patrick remained on the veranda, allowing him a birds-eye view of the proceedings.

“I think that we need to test your… um… powers,” said Larissa. When Ari looked confused, Larissa went on, “If you froze Kiara, then you did it because you were scared.”

“Yea… so,” said Ari, not following Larissa’s train of thoughts.

“How scared would y
ou be if you fell from this tree?” Larissa asked, indicating the giant gum nearby.

Ari’s eyes slowly traced the tree; her head bent all the way b
ack as she looked up at least thirty metres into the air. “Pretty damn…” Ari’s voice trailed off as she understood just what Larissa was saying and then shook her head. “No, no, no.”

“I will catch you,” said Ragon, appearing suddenly behind her and squeezing her hand.

It took another twenty minutes or so before the coven had convinced Ari of their plan.
Under the instructions of Larissa and with the help of Sandra, she could no longer put off facing her fear of heights and began to climb the old gum. Though Ari loved tree climbing, she was terrified of heights; the thought therefore, that at the end of her peaceful climb, she would have to jump, was absolutely horrifying. She couldn’t help but glance up at the thick, leafless branches and peer idly at the moon, where a small rim of blackness confirmed the passing of the previous night’s full moon. After a few minutes however, Ari was finally standing on one of the topmost branches, with Sandra next to her, for both moral and physical support. Sandra was poised like a leopard on the same branch as Ari, needing nothing to steady her, and reminding Ari of just how magnificent vampires were.

“This feels stupid,” Ari said loudly
, trying not to look down.

“It’s alright honey; I‘ve got you,”
Sandra replied next to her.

“Why am I doing this again?”
she whispered.

From the ground Ragon shouted
back, “Because this is the easiest way for us to see if you freeze yourself to slow down your fall.”

“And you’re sure you will catch me?”
she yelled back, unable to keep the hysteria out of her voice. “You know, in case I don’t… or cant…”

“Always,”
replied Ragon.

“Oh p
lease,” Clyde whispered, “besides, if he doesn’t- I will.”

From up the top of the tree
, Sandra laughed, causing the branch that she and Ari were standing on to shake violently.

“Clyde honey, we
’re trying to make her scared, not freaking terrified.”

Clyde was about to respond, but before he could voice his retort, Ari s
aid, “Please don’t move so much; I am not exactly a big fan of heights.”