A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (33 page)

“It’s not my fault that I am stuck in this crazy love triangle between Kiara, R
agon and you,” Ari said angrily.

“I know,” he purred, “but the heart wants, what the heart wants. I would do anything for her,” he said
, advancing on Ari, the blade in his hand raised. “I
will
do anything for her. Perhaps in the afterlife you and Ragon will be together, but there is no place for a vampire and whatever the hell you are, in this world.”

Ari shuddered, forcing Sameth’s cruel words from her mind.

“Close your eyes,” he
said.

Ari did not
obey, but kept her eyes plastered on the knife in his hand.

“It won’t do any well to watch”
said Sameth, “I have died once- I know.”

Ari considered this. If she was about to die, did she really want to watch him kill her? In defeat she closed her eyes, and the last
dregs of her tears were forced free to flow down her cheeks.

Sameth whispered something when her eyes were finally shut, but it was too quiet for her to hear, though she thought it sounded like ‘I’m sorry.’

Suddenly there was a whoosh of air against her face, and Ari felt the knife stab deep into her stomach. At first
she thought the blade had missed her, but when she looked down at the blood escaping from her body, a sudden throbbing sensation radiated from the wound and she screamed out in pain. As the blade dug deeper, she felt her nerves respond, screaming at her, while wave after wave of unbearable agony overtook all senses. Before the panic could set in, she felt the room around her fade, and then a dull numbness washed over her, until she couldn’t feel anything anymore.

Chapter
20- Clyde’s Decision

“No!” a voice screamed from the darkness.

Ari heard the noise as if it were very from far away. Then suddenly a new pain engulfed her, and she fell heavily to the floor. Slowly
she opened her eyes and saw- Clyde? He was standing in front of her, having knocked Sameth away. Ari stared at him in bewilderment until a loud clattering signified the knife which had stabbed her, falling to the floor. The noise reverberated off the walls, pinging through her ear drums.

Sameth was crouched low now, one hand in front of him
while his fingernails dug into the stone floor. He snarled at Clyde, but before he could spring, Clyde attacked again. Sameth fell hard against the wall of the mausoleum and Clyde jumped on him, tearing at his flesh with his fangs, while punching with his fists- his rage fuelling his immortal abilities. For a while he continued to pummel Sameth, with wave after wave of punches smashing hard into his target. Underneath this force, Sameth’s body began to crumple and he fell heavily to the ground. Sameth screamed loudly, and Ari tried not to watch when Clyde mercilessly reached down and pulled hard at Sameth’s head, severing it from his body. 

“Cl… Clyde?”
stammered Ari.

Clyde stared for a moment at what he had done. Sameth’s head was still in his hands, but at Ari’s words he turned
to face her and dropped it to the floor. His hands and face were smeared in thick red blood, soaking through his white cotton shirt.

“Ari,” said Clyde, reaching down to her and staring at her stomach, where a dark red spot continued to
grow.

In an instant Clyde
had reached for her, breaking the binds around her wrists and ankles. The moment Clyde had lifted her, Ari’s hand instinctively went to the wound in her stomach, but she suddenly stopped and fell back down to the ground, her eyes fixed on Clyde’s face- until they became dull and empty.

As
Clyde ran back to his car, he cradled Ari, pressing one hand firmly against her stomach, trying desperately to slow the bleeding. There was a sickening squishing noise made as his hand pressed against the broken flesh, digging deep into her stomach, and Ari jerked in his hands.                

“You’re going to be ok,” said Clyde, blurring through the cemetery as he felt her heart falter. “You have to be…”

A fe
w moments of silence passed, as Ari tried to hold onto anything to remain conscious. Suddenly she heard Clyde speak again.

“Ragon?”
said Clyde, speaking hurriedly into the phone.

Ari heard
Clyde’s voice as though it were a distant echo. She didn’t know where she was or what had happened. 

“It’s Ari
. Sameth… he attacked her.”

Ari felt something press hard against her stomach and she flinched,
just as a fresh wave of pain assaulted her senses.

“I can’t put her on,” Clyde screamed
.

Ari jolted forwards as
Clyde pressed his foot down on the accelerator.

“It’s pretty bad,”
said Clyde, “she’s lost a lot of blood, and… and, I can feel her heart slowing. I’m about five minutes away from the nearest hospital.”

There was a long pause, and Ari felt the darkness press down harder than before. She almost gave in to the dull wash of unconsciousness, until Clyde spoke again, dragging her back into limbo.

“Wait,” Clyde yelled into the phone. “What if she can’t make it? What if I can’t her there in time?”

Another pause
followed this, and Ari tried to search for the meaning behind Clyde’s words, but her mind was too muddled.

“You know what I mean,” Clyde spat
a moment later. Slowly he began rolling the sleeve of his shirt up as he said, “I am not going to let her die. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”   

Time lapsed slowly as Ari lay slumped in the passenger seat of Clyde’s convertible. She couldn’t tell how long it took to get to the hospital, though the drive felt never ending. And with each excruciating second, Ari felt her life begin to slip away. A sudden swerving motion, followed by hard breaking, preceded Clyde reaching across and pulling Ari into his arms again.

“Ari, can you hear me?”
he said, and though she heard him speak she could not respond, simply stare back at him, her ghostly face motionless. “If the doctors… if they can’t save you- do you want me to-”

But his words were cut short when the door to the hospital entrance swung open.
 

“What happened,” the horrified nurse asked, racing towards Clyde
.

Ari’s eyes fluttered open momentarily, but then they closed
; what had happened?

“I don’t know; she’s still bre
athing but…” Clyde said dumbly.

“Calling Dr Ring to the nurse’s st
ation, Dr Ring, STAT!” said the nurse, and her voice was magnified all around the hospital, screaming out through the strategically placed speakers on every corner, so that it echoed eerily off into the distance.

In the time it took for the
nurse to move back over to Ari, a swinging door was pushed open and a group of three people rushed over to where Clyde stood. Ari could sense the tension in the air but it did not concern her. Her mind was dull and distant. She could no longer feel below her waist.

“Here,” an older man said to Clyde, indicating a mobile stretcher that another man was pushing
closer.

In a second Clyde moved over and gently placed Ari onto it. He reached quickly for her ha
nd, as the doctors began pushing her back towards the swinging doors, just as many nurses suddenly began shouting out various vital signs.

“You can’t come past here,”
said the doctor, looking at Clyde sternly. 

“I’m staying with her,” Clyde replied
, and Ari felt him squeeze her hand tightly.

For a moment the do
ctor seemed to consider insisting, until a few shouted out vital signs made him glance down at Ariana, seemingly distracted from Clyde’s presence. Still clutched to Ari’s hand, Clyde followed the emergency team through two sets of swing doors, trying to be as incognito as possible.

“How long has she been bleeding for?” the doctor asked, his hands probing her body for any further injuries, while one hand remained firmly pressed against the hole in her stomach.

Ari was confused; w
as she bleeding? Her startled eyes opened wide, and bright white walls pressed down on her, blinding her.

“Maybe ten minutes
, no more,” Clyde responded quickly.

“BP?”
someone yelled, just as another person replied, “Systolic only 55!”

“Ariana can you hear me?” a man said, and Ari tried to nod her head, but couldn’t tell if she did or not.

Then she felt something sharp stick into her arm, just as another strange voice spoke.

“We need you to leave
,” said the stern voice.

“I
’m going, I’m going,” she heard Clyde say.

“Push
2ml of epi into that line; get that crash cart over here now,” another voice yelled. “We’re losing her.”

Clyde moved over to Ariana quickly.

“Please,” Clyde said, as a man moved to stop him. “I just have to say goodbye.”

Ari felt someone reach down t
o her and heard whispering.

“You will be alright,”
said Clyde. “I’m sorry I am making this decision for you… but I can’t let you die.”

Then, just before the darkness engulfed her, she felt soft cold lips brush against hers, and something else
… a coppery tang assaulted her taste buds. Just as her mind faded she realised what it was- blood.

Chapter
21- Limbo

For three weeks Ariana was stuck in limbo- between life and death. Every night Ragon and often Clyde would go in to see her, until the late night visiting hours passed and even then, they would remain until the nurses, who Clyde would flirt with shamelessly in order to convince them to extend their visiting hours, kicked them out. Sometimes Ragon would pace the room, desperately trying to make sense of everything, and other times he would just sit and hold Ari’s hand, willing her to live.

During these forced instances, when Clyde ad Ragon were required to tolerate each other’s company,
the pair did not communicate, and each pretended the other was not there. When Ragon had reached the hospital, following Ari’s attack, he had not missed the blood stained kiss that Clyde had given her. The moment his eyes fell on her lips, and he had seen the dried blood there, Ragon had known exactly what Clyde had tried to do. Ragon had been forced to wait the longest, tensest four hours of his life, while Ariana had been rushed to surgery, during which time he had no idea whether or not she would die, remain human, or become a fledgling.

Though Clyde still remained with the coven, he had been sulky and moody since the night of Sameth’s betrayal.
During the day Clyde locked himself in his room and at night he left the house only to feed or visit Ari. It wasn’t just Clyde and Ragon who visited Ari; the rest of the coven came periodically to see her also. The only two who did not visit her were Patrick and Ryder. Ryder’s transformation into a vampire fledgling had been successful, though he had been forbidden by the coven to leave the house. Patrick remained with him at Ragon’s estate, trying to keep his blood lust under control.

It wasn’t until Christmas day when finally Ari awoke from her coma. Flashes of conversations came to her instantly, and she tried desperately to piece together the missing parts of her life. But for all she tried, she could not remember how or why she had come to be in the hospital. She remembered everything about her life leading up to her hospitalisation; she remember Ragon and the coven, even Crystal and Ryder, but how she had managed to end up in a hospital bed, trapped in a coma for three weeks, baffled her.

The moment she had opened her eyes and seen the white sterile hospital walls, all manner of thoughts swamped her. What had happened? It seemed that she was not the only one who was clueless as to how she had been stabbed
; the doctors at the hospital had questioned her extensively and, after insisting that she had no knowledge at all of her attack, had ordered a psychological evaluation. This might have been the worst thing, had she not already been told by her physician, that due to the nature of her attack, a police officer would be coming by shortly to question her.

“So you can’t remember an
ything?” asked one of the doctors, staring at her plainly.

Ari rolled her eyes. She had only been awake for an hour or so, and was already wishing that she was
still asleep, away from the prying sterile stares of the hospital staff. All she could think about was Ragon. Where was he? Why hadn’t he come to take her away? 

“No
- nothing,” Ari insisted, for what she thought was the hundredth time.

“Amnesia is common with injuries such as these,”
said the female doctor, swinging her stethoscope in her hands, much to Ari’s annoyance.

A few short knocks on the door made Ari and the swarm of doctors around her turn around. Slowly the door opened and a tall young man with a strong frame walked inside.

“I’m officer Ryans,” said the man, looking apprehensively at the doctors who were staring at him, before moving over to Ari and saying, “miss, I am a police man, and I am here to find out what happened to you.”

Ari looked solemnly up at the young officer
; he didn’t need him to introduce himself- the navy pants, light blue shirt and upholstered gun, didn’t leave much to the imagination. Still she thought, trying hard not to blush when he moved to sit next to her on the chair beside her bed, he was incredibly handsome. He had wavy blonde hair, a long face and brown eyes. There was an air of concern and protectiveness about him, that somehow, despite everything that she had been through, made her feel comforted.

“Can you remember what happened to you the night you were attacked?” he asked, and before she could stop herself, Ari let a small hysterical laugh escape her lips.

“She has amnesia,” said the female doctor, moving over to Officer Ryans, her eyes lighting up as she scanned him from head to toe.

“Actually,” said the officer, pushing past the doctor, “I’d rather hear what Ari has to say.”

The female doctor pouted and moved over to Ari’s hospital chart. 

“I can’t remember anything. I have been saying that since I
woke up, or came out of my coma… or whatever,” said Ari, her eyes tearing up as she purposefully tried to avoid eye contact with the handsome policeman.

“I’m sorry,”
the officer replied, his brown eyes becoming large and sympathetic as he reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. “It’s just… you’re the tenth female to be attacked in Brisbane in the last month, and the first one to survive. I don’t want to push you but-”

But before officer Ryans could finish, the door to her room burst open.

“This is a private room,” the female doctors began to say, until her eye’s widened and she swooned at the gorgeous green-eyed man wearing a beanie, who had just walked inside.

Next to her, Ari felt the officer’s hand leave her shoulder, as he
moved to stand protectively in front her.

“Wait,” said Ari
, her mouth slightly open in awe- it was Ragon.

“Ari
, are you’re alright,” said Ragon, sweeping over to her and embracing her, before the doctor could protest. “They called me an hour ago, but,” he broke off, looking out the window at the light blue dusk that was just visible from this floor, “I had to wait half an hour before I could leave.”

“Ragon,” she breathed, and she felt a fresh wave of tears escape her, as she cried openly
against his shoulder.

Instantly everything that had happened to her the night she had been attacked came flooding back. She remembered Sameth; his dark cruel eyes explaining calmly why she had to die, and then stabbing her. And… and Clyde saving her,.

“You know this man?”
asked officer Ryans, surveying Ragon suspiciously.

“This is Ragon,” Ari
said quickly, wiping her eyes with the hand that was not attached to a drip.

“Her boyfriend,” added Ragon, glaring at the officer.

At these words the female doctor, who had been eyeing Ragon with interest, let her mouth fall open as she uttered a surprised cry.

“Well, if you remember anything, anything at all, please call me,” the officer said. “My home phone number and address is on the back, so don’t hesitate… day or night.”

Ragon looked at the policeman
with narrowed eyes, which turned to shock as Ari reached out to take Officer Ryan’s business card. But before she could take hold of his car, Ragon had stretched out his own hand and intercepted Ari’s, pocketing the small card quickly without so much as looking at it. The female doctor, who had also watched the exchange, looked jealously down at the card with the policeman’s contact details.

“Thanks
,” said Ragon.

“So you are the one who found Ari?” Officer Ryans asked.

Ragon shook his head and avoiding Ari’s eyes, gruffly said, “No.” 

“Well I need to talk to the person who brought Ariana in here,”
said Officer Ryans, putting his notepad and pen away disappointedly. “They may have seen the person who attacked her.”

Next to her, Ari felt Ragon tense.

“What makes you think she was attacked?” asked Ragon. “I thought it was an accident?”

“She was stabbed,”
Officer Ryans replied coolly, indicating Ari’s stomach.

“But that doesn’t mean
-” Ragon began to say.

“And there are bruises on her wrists and ankles from where she was
clearly bound,” added Officer Ryans. 

“Officer Ryans
… a word please,” said the female doctor, swinging her stethoscope to steal the policeman’s attention, and indicating for him to join her outside.

Officer Ryans
followed her out of Ari’s room. The moment they were alone, Ragon turned to Ari, his face an image of guilt and sorrow.

“My love,” he said, one hand reaching to cup her face, while the other rested softly on her stomach. “I am so sorry. Nothing I can say will
-”

But Ari stopped him quickly, shaking her head as she placed two shaky fingers over his lips.

“Please don’t… don’t say that,” she stuttered, but Ragon had stood suddenly, an angry expression on his face. “I’m serious Ragon!”

“What happened to me?” she asked, searching his eyes for answers.

“Clyde found you at my mausoleum. Sameth had already… had already stabbed you and he thought that you were going to die, so he brought you here
.”

Ari had sat upright, her mind racing as she remembered being in the car with Clyde as he drove to the hospital. But there was something else, something else when she had been close to passing out. He had asked her something. What was it?

“I should have known, should have-” but Ragon’s words broke off as he moved towards the door, straining his neck to one side as he listened carefully.

“What is it?” whispered
Ari.

“The doctor, she’s talking to the policeman about your injuries,” Ragon hissed.

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Ari.

“Not this injury,” said Ragon, pointing offensively at Ari’s stab wound, “your… previous injuries.”

“What are they saying?” asked Ari, her eyes tracing down to the small pink scar on her wrist, relic from when Ragon had bitten her.

“
She’s saying that some of your x-rays showed abnormalities; there are contusion marks on your ribs, consistent with falling or taking a beating in the last few months,” said Ragon.

“But that was Kiara and Matthew,”
said Ari. 

“
She says that you have classic strangulation hairline fractures but there are signs of ossification, indicating that the injuries occurred prior to your attack,” Ragon added in a dull lifeless tone, ignoring Ari’s comment.

As Ragon spoke
, his fist bawled at his side and he shook his head violently.

“Ragon, what happened to me was not your fault,” said Ar
i.

Ragon did not have a chance to reply, the officer and
female doctor had filed back into her room.

“Ariana, for the duration of your hospitalisation I am going to post a plain clothed policeman on watch,” said
officer Ryans, his eyes darting angrily up at Ragon. “When your memory does come back, I am hoping that you will be able to help us find the person responsible for all these deaths.”

“When can she come home?”
asked Ragon, ignoring the officer and directing his attention to the doctor.

T
he female doctor looked sheepishly at Officer Ryans, then swooning, turned to face Ragon, as if uncertain who to side with.

Finally she said
, “Well… as soon as she recovers, though her retrograde amnesia may take longer to heal than the rest of her body, but she will need round the clock care and-”

“Actually,” Officer Ryans interrupted. “I’m not so sure it is a good idea
for Ariana to return home with you.”

At these words Ragon
growled. Officer Ryans had not missed this, and he gestured down at his holster, where a concealed gun was hanging. Ragon smiled grimly at this.

“Well I’m not sure that’s your call,” Ragon said between gritted teeth.

Officer Ryans made to move towards Ragon, but Ariana sat up quickly, the effort forcing her to cry out in pain. Both men looked over to her instantly.

“Perhaps both of you should leave,”
said the doctor, moving over to Ariana and placing a hand on her wrist so as to feel her pulse.

From the way the doctor battered her eyelids at the policeman and Ragon, Ari wasn’t convinced that she was genuinely interested in Ari’s
wellbeing, as much as she was jealous at all the attention that Ari was receiving.

“I’ll be back soo
n,” said Ragon, moving over to her and kissing her on the forehead.

“
As will I,” said Officer Ryans, holding the door open for Ragon to leave first.