A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (35 page)

“What about me?”
Ari asked, looking around desperately for somewhere to hide.

Ragon had moved over to where a few lab coats hung near the door
; he grabbed one and handed it to Ari.

“If they come in her, you’re a technician, processing a body,” he said
, helping her to pull on the white coat.

“Which body?”
she asked.

“Mine,” said Ragon, removing his shirt and laying down on one of the display tables in the centre of the room.

“But-” said Ari.

“It’s ok, if they get suspicious, there is always plan B,” said Ragon, winking once before closing his eyes and lying perfectly still.

Ari had just enough time to button up the lab coat, before there was a sound outside.

“Did you see the lock though?” a man with a deep voice asked, and Ari looked around wildly.

“Yea, I saw it,” another responded. “But why the hell would someone want to break into a morgue.”

“Beats me,” the first man responded.

When the
two men appeared in the doorway, Ari fanned surprise. She had been leaning over Ragon, clasping the five folders that he had given her and pretending to write something down on one of them.

“Oh sorry err… miss,” said
one of the men, his eyes widening when he saw Ari.

Ari looked up at him.
The man who spoke was short and fat with a squat little head that just managed to hold a navy blue hat with the word ‘security’ embroidered in white. A second embroidered area on his shirt, told Ari that his name was Bert.

“
One of the alarms in the front office went off and it looks as if the lock to the main door has been tampered with,” said a second and taller man.

Ari squinted at the second man’s shirt and saw that his name was Ernie. 

“Oh, well…” said Ari, trying to gain her composure, “I just got called in to process this body.”

Ari pointed
at Ragon, and both the security guards looked down at him.

“You haven’t heard anything funny the
n miss?” asked Bert.

Ari shook her head, trying not to
startle when the tall skinny man called Ernie, walked over to Ragon and looked down at him curiously.

“Mind if we just check around?” asked
Bert.

“Of course not
Bert,” said Ari, her voice high pitched as she read his name tag. “Better to be safe than sorry; though I can’t imagine what sort of lunatic would want to break into a morgue.”

“Told you Bert,” said the tall skinny man.

Bert however wasn’t listening. After scanning the room quickly, he walked over to the large freezer and pulled one of the draws out at random.

“Yuck Ern;
this wasn’t in the job description,” he said.

Ari looked across at the man
and gasped when she realised that he had pulled out the slab that Clyde was lying on.

“Oh man, dead bodies give me the he
eby jeebies,” said Ernie. “No offence, miss.”

“Oi, are they supposed to be dressed like this Ern?”
asked Bert.

“Like what?” Ern
ie replied, moving over to stare at Clyde’s body.

Ari thought fast; there was a drip of sweat gliding down her forehead as she realised that their plan was crashing down around her.

“Oh, both these men just came in for processing,” said Ari, moving over Clyde’s slab. “They’re definitely dead,” she added, reaching for Bert’s hand and placing it against Clyde’s chest. “See, no heart beat.”

Bert startled when his hand brushed against Clyde’s cold skin
, and he quickly raced back to the door.

“Wait,” said Ari, trying to keep her voice stead, “where are you going? Don’t you want to check the rest of them?”

Bert and Ernie exchanged horrified glances, and then Ernie said, “Probably just kids doing it for a dare. We’ll let you get back to your work miss.”

“Thanks guys,” said Ari,
supressing a smile as she watched the two men scamper from the room.

Ragon and Clyde waited until the fast paced sound of shoes running from the building could no longer be heard, before speaking.

“You do realise how much you owe me for this,”
said Clyde, jumping off the metallic slab. “It took every ounce of self-control not to scare the bejesus out of those two; can you imagine their reaction if I had of opened my eyes; I think they might have cried.”

Ragon couldn’t help but laugh
and sat bolt upright on the table, his hands raised outwards as though he had just been bought back to life.

“I am alive,” Ragon
said mechanically, winking at Ari before adding, “you are the best coroner ever!”

Ari let a small laugh escape her lips and watched as Ragon grabbed the folders she had been car
rying and moved over to the door.

“Everything we need to know is in here,” said
Ragon, now holding the door open.

It was a little before 5am before Ari was back in the confines of her hospital room. The policeman in front of her room seemed not to notice them as they raced inside, and Ragon nodded his approval. Removing the pillow from under her sheets, Ari lay back down and turned to face Ragon expectantly. Reluctantly, Ragon divided the folder’s he had taken from the morgue between himself, Clyde and Ari. She tried to ignore the stich in her side as she rummaged through the paperwork. Their little trip to the morgue hadn’t been particularly long but it had drained her considerably.

“These were the only girls aged
twenty-four that I could find,” he said.

For a
few moments the three scanned through the files. Ari shuddered when she saw the photograph pinned to the front page of the coroner’s report she was reading. It was an image of a girl, with the name ‘Alana Camp’ written below. Alana Camp had been found dead a fortnight ago, outside the entrance to a seven eleven in Roma Street. Asides from the age of the girl, Ari found nothing that caught her attention, until she read the next of kin section and her stomach turned over.

“Grace Valley Orphanage,” she said
slowly.

“What?” Ragon
said.

“She went to the same orphanage as me,” explained Ari.

Both Clyde and Ragon glanced down at the files they were reading. Ari knew instantly from the look of horror on their faces, that it wasn’t just Alana Camp who had been an orphan.

“So did these girls,” said Ragon, and Clyde nodded also.
“They all went to Grace Valley Orphanage?”

“Maybe we should go to the orphanage, see who is-” Ragon began to say, but Ari cut him off.

“You can’t,” said Ari, remembering the news report she had seen months ago. “It burnt down a few months ago.”

Both Ragon and Clyde stared at Ari.

“But how could someone know how old I am and which orphanage I went to, and not know what I look like?” asked Ari.

Before Clyde and Ragon could respond however, the sound of a nurse
whistling tunelessly to herself, met their ears and both men froze.

“You had better get out of here,”
said Ari, looking wildly around.

“I am not letting you out of my sight,” said Ragon.

Ari was just about to argue when she heard the raised voice of the nurse outside say, “What do you mean I can’t enter?”

“Go,” hissed Ari, but Ragon shook his head defiantly.

A second voice, this one male, met their ears and Ari realised that it was officer Ryan’s who spoke, “Step aside constable,” he said.

“This should be interesting,” said Clyde, just as the door to Ari’s room swung open.

“What are you doing here?” Officer Ryans asked in an angry whisper, looking first at Ragon and over to Clyde.

“I could ask
you the same thing,” Ragon said in the same low voice.

“I told you
I would put a policeman on to watch her,” said Officer Ryans, no longer trying to keep his voice low. “But you’re not supposed to be here now. It’s outside of visiting hours. How did you get past the constable on the door?”

Ragon glared at
him but it was Clyde who spoke, “Guess the security is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

Ragon had to supress a grin.

“And who are you?” asked Officer Ryans.

“Clyde,
the knight in shining armour- I bought Ari here.”

At these words Officer Ryans moved over to Clyde
, saying, “I need to ask you some questions about that.”

“That’s fine, although you’ll need to make an appointment with my secretary
.”

Officer Ryans
gave him a scathing look and said, “Ok how about here and now?”     

C
lyde shrugged, moved to sit on the chair next to Ari’s bed and said, “Fire away.”

“R
etrace your movements on the day that you bought Ariana to the hospital.”

“Hmm, let
’s see, well I stayed in bed most of the day; it was pretty hot out and I burn easily…” Clyde began, pausing to smile at Ragon’s inaudible growl, “then, around dinner time I decided to go and fetch a snack. I have been on a liquid diet, so I thought I would treat myself with something I would regret later.”

Ari laughed loudly and Clyde beamed at her.

“Anyway, long story short; on my way home I saw Ari on the side of the road near the driveway. When I got to her, I thought perhaps that she had been jogging or something and had fallen over, but then I saw that she was bleeding, so I raced her to the hospital.”

“What do
you think happened to her?” said Officer Ryans, scribbling quickly on a notepad.

“How should I know? I’m not a doctor; maybe she got clipped by a car?”

Officer Ryan’s eyes narrowed even further at this and said, “You didn’t realise she had been stabbed?”

“No. I just saw the blood and took her here,” Clyde responded coolly.

“And there was no one else around; no binds on her hands or ankles… nothing?”

“Can’t you do this someplace else?”
asked Ragon, his angry eyes glaring at the policeman before turning to look at Ari in concern.

“Sure
… later,” said Officer Ryans, clearly not wanting to leave Ari alone. “Can you come buy the station tomorrow morning some time to make a statement?”

Clyde looked at Ragon
and then turned to Officer Ryans and said, “I have a prior engagement in the morning. I couldn’t possibly break it- wouldn’t end well.”  

Reluctantly Officer Ryans pulled
one of his business cards out and handed it to Clyde. He did not write down his afterhours contact details on the back of it, as he had done for Ari, but shoved the card haphazardly into Clyde’s outstretched hand.

After that, and with much insistence from Officer Ryans, Ragon and Clyde left begrudgingly. Ragon had leaned in close to Ari, kissing her on the cheek as he promised that he wouldn’t be far away. When the door had closed behind them, Officer Ryans had rounded on Ari.

“How much do you really know about him?”
he asked.

As he spoke
, his wallet fell from his pocket and Ari reached across her bed to retrieve it, wincing slightly as she felt her surgery site stretch. Looking down, she saw that it had fallen open to a photograph. There was a picture of a dog, a cocker spaniel, and Ari smiled at the image.

“Canine companion?” she asked, looking at the golden coat and long nose that was depicted in the image.

“Agatha,” said Officer Ryans, and though his voice was dismissive, Ari guessed that there was sadness behind it. 

“
She has your eyes,” said Ari, smiling as she handed his wallet back. “I have a Pyrenean mountain dog called Crystal.”

“
I lost Aggie a few months ago; just about broke my heart,” he said, before reaching for Ari and resting his hand gently on her shoulder. “Look, I can see that you’re a good person. It’s my job to catch the scumbag that hurt you. You’re not the first person that-”

“Well
… as soon as I remember, I promise I will do everything I can to help you catch the person who did this to me,” she said, not looking him directly in the eye.

“It’s Lee,” he said kindly.

Ari nodded her head sadly. She felt horrible having to lie to him but what was the alternative? She couldn’t tell him what she knew; that the reason that so many other girls had died might be because of her. Because someone out there knew how old she was and that she had gone to the Grace Valley Orphanage. As she thought this, the mystery of the murders in Brisbane pressed down on her, darkening her face. Who was after her and why?  

Chapter 2
3- A Great Cost

Later that day Ari had been visited by her lead physician, who had promptly declared that in forty-eight hours, Ari would be able to be discharged. Later that afternoon, during regular visiting hours, the entire coven, except Patrick and Ryder, came to visit her. Ari beamed at all the faces that stared back at her, until she realised that someone was missing.

“Where’s Patrick?” she asked, and suddenly her eyes became wide
and fearful. “Oh God I forgot… is Ryder… is he…” asked Ari, searching the coven’s faces.

“Oh sugar he is fine,” said Sandra, sweeping over to her and hugging her hard. “Ryder is a health
y little fledgling. The vampirism took like a treat.”

Ari breathed out a sigh of relief.

A moment late
r the door to her room opened and a plump nurse with long red hair ambled in with a food cart.

She
took one look at all the people in Ari’s room and said, “Only two visitors at a time!”

Ragon grimaced, moved over to Ari and whispered, “Sandra and Larissa are going to stay for a bit to talk to you. Clyde and I have to go and give the police a statement.”

She could tell by the distasteful look on Ragon’s face that the prospect of going down to the police station was not something that he was looking forward. She kissed him quickly on the lips and watched as the coven members began filing out, while the stern nurse tapped her foot expectantly.

“Be safe,”
said Thomas, hugging Sandra.

Larissa and Cambridge too were exchanging goodbyes.

Cambridge had swept over to his mate and kissed her passionately on the lips.

She smiled
up at him, and reached a hand out to cup his dark cheeks, saying, “I love you.”

For a while the three girls chatted. Ari wanted to know every detail about Ryder’s transformation, and so Lariasa and Sandra spent almost an hour describing it and everything else that had happened since she had been in a coma. When they had finally finished, a soft knock on the door followed a tall nurse with dark hair tied into a pony walking into the room. For a moment the nurse seemed to be surprised that Ari was not alone, but then bustled over to Ari and began reading her chart. Ari stared at the woman; even with her face mostly covered by a blue face mask, it was clear how beautiful she was.

“How you feeling?” the nurse asked
in a croaky voice, moving over to Ari and checking her drip line. “Sorry about the mask… I was just down in the respiratory ward and it’s mandatory to wear one between wards.”

“I’m feeling fine,” said Ari, watching as the nurse beg
an drawing up something into a syringe.

Since waking from her coma, Ari had recovered quickly. No longer was there pain and yet
now an odd shiver swept up her arms and settled in her heart. She stared at the nurse; there was something strangely familiar about the large dark eyes that stared back at her.

“What’s that?” asked Ari, looking at the thick yellow liquid that had settled in the syringe.

“Just some pain relief,” said the nurse.

Next to her, Sandra and Larissa were talking animatedly and seemed not to notice as the nurse lifted up the drip line and began slowly injecting the dru
g. Ari watched the yellow liquid make its way down the fluid line and into her IV. A great drowsiness washed over Ari, and she felt her eyelids become heavy. Glancing across the room, Ari’s eyes fell again on the beautiful nurse. At the same time, the nurse stared down at her. Both her dark eyes had become cold and icy, and Ari felt another shiver race up her spine. The smile which had been on Ari’s face was suddenly stifled, and her eyes bulged, just as her hands became like large weights at her side.

“Kiara,” Ari breathed, and both Sandra and Larissa turned around
to stare at her in confusion.

“What honey?”
asked Sandra, looking at Ari with concern. “What did you say?”

Ari’s eyes were open, fixed in horror at Sandra and Larissa, but she could no longer move
.

“I think you two might need to leave,” said the nurse
in her faked croaky voice, “this girl needs her rest.”

Larissa and Sandra looked down at Ari
in concern, apparently torn between staying and leaving.

“But visiting hours don’t end for another hour,” said Larissa, now turning to look up at the nurse
suspiciously. “What did you just give her?”

The
moment Larissa’s eyes met the nurses, they widened in realisation. Larissa had only enough time to gasp in surprise, before Kiara had thrown Ari across the room, pulling her arm free from the drop line. Instantly Ari’s eyes were forced open, as the white hospital wall was brought into fast approximation; she hit it hard, letting her hands take most of the force so as to shield her surgery site from the main blow. When Ari slumped onto the floor, she was barely conscious. Staring up at the ceiling, she saw Larissa and Sandra, snarling and spitting. Kiara looked down at Ari, her eyes mad as she threw off the mask covering her face.

“You just couldn’t die could you?” said
Kiara, her voice no longer croaky, but cold and full of malice.

Kiara moved
towards Sandra and kicked her hard, causing her to fly past Ari and land against the hospital bed. Larissa growled, looking down at Sandra in horror before turning back to face Kiara. In a heartbeat she charged at her but Kiara was ready, and withdrew a concealed dagger from behind her back. In the time it took for Larissa to see the glimmer of light caught by the blade, it was already too late, and Larissa’s speeding body slammed straight into it, the silver knife burying deep into her chest. Staggering backwards, Larissa’s hands grasped at the blade to pull it out.

“EDTA?”
whispered Larissa, her voice suddenly congested, as thick blood spilled from her mouth and nose, trickling down her pale flesh like a slow running waterfall.

Ari looked at Larissa in confusi
on. What was going on? Larissa was a vampire; she could heal herself… she was immortal.

“No,”
Sandra screamed, racing to Larissa’s side.

At the same time
voices sounded from outside, and a loud knock rasped against the closed door.

“Ariana?” a male voice called from behind the door, “unlock this door.”

Ari looked wildly around the room. Her body felt numb, but slowly, very slowly, she was able to raise her head to see Larissa. The expression on Larissa’s face seemed to be frozen. Crumpled on the floor, Larissa’s wild and untamed hair covered her face, soaking up the blood from her mouth, so that her normally red hair was now thick and black looking. The strange angle that she had fallen, gave Larissa’s body a distorted appearance. Next to her, Sandra stood suddenly, glaring menacingly up at Kiara. She made to move towards her, but Kiara blurred over to the window and jumped through it. Ari watched as the curtains blew madly in the wind and realised that Kiara was gone.

“No, No, No,”
said Sandra, moving back over to Larissa and cradling her in her arms, so that the blood which continued to pour from the hole in her chest began to soak through Sandra’s shirt, colouring it bright red.

Instantly
Sandra’s wrist was in her mouth and she tore at her own flesh, forcing the blood which spilled freely, into Larissa’s partly open mouth. Larissa’s head rolled dumbly, and her arms and legs went limp. Sandra gripped her tighter, one hand under her head and the other brushing away blood stained hair that had begun to cling to her face.

“Tell Cambridge…” Larissa croa
ked, trying to catch her breath as wayward blood stained tears escaped her eyes, “I would have done it all over again…”

But her words were cut off before she could finish
them. Her eyes had grown wide and un-focused and her pupils had expanded, so that only thin halos were left of her normally gloriously, honey-green eyes.

Sandra cried hard, trying desperately to plug the wound, despite the fact that it was no longer bleeding.

Outside there was banging and Ari heard a man say, “
Ariana, I’m breaking down this door,” just as the door burst open.

Before she knew what she was doing,
Ari had thrown her arms up in the air and the door froze half open. Forcing herself to stand, Ari pushed herself against the door, not realising that she had stopped time until she saw the frozen foot that was still against it. Peering around, Ari saw Officer Ryans with an escort of what looked like nurses and doctors. Pulling her tear filled eyes away from him, she glanced back at Larissa.

“Is she…” asked Ari, but she knew from the lifeless expression on Larissa’s face
that she was dead.

Instantly Ari
hated herself and her skin quickly felt hot and tight, as if it didn’t belong to her anymore. All she wanted to do was escape- to leave the cursed body she was trapped in, along with all the death and all the pain that it encompassed. Loud sobbing pulled Ari from her doldrums, and she turned to stare at Sandra. She was clutching Larissa in her arms, cradling her like a baby.

“Sandra, you have to go,” Ari whispered in a croaky voice, now th
inking only of protecting her. “Sandra,” Ari said again, forcing her onto her feet, “go!” she cried, moving over to the window and pulling the curtains back. “Hurry!”

Ari watched as
Sandra picked up Larissa’s lifeless body and moved to the open window that Kiara had just fled from.

Sandra did
n’t look back at Ari, but clasped tight onto her dead friend’s body and leapt from the window and into the night. Moving over to the window, Ari watched Sandra land and vanish into the night.

Before she turned around, Ari realised that she could feel that Officer Ryans was still frozen. This third instance of stopping time had allowed her the slightest of control over her powers. She felt the frozen figures waiting outside her room, as if they were connected to her and under her control, like pieces on a chess board.

Quickly she turned around; t
here was a large red mark on the tiled floor from where Larissa had been bleeding and Ari hurriedly grabbed towels from her room and began soaking up the thick congealed blood. When she had just thrown the last of the towels into one of her draws, she felt her hands twitch and instinctively knew that she didn’t have long before Officer Ryans unfroze. She had just enough time to straighten her hospital bed and jump under the ruffled sheets, when Officer Ryan’s foot pushed the door all the way open.

For a moment Officer Ryan’s blinked, then his eyes darted to Ari, who was lying in her bed, with the sheets drawn up to her chin, hoping desperately to cover her bleeding arm from where the drip line had been pulled away. 

“What the hell…” Officer Ryans began
to say, before commencing pacing around the room, as if he thought that there might be someone hiding from him. “Why was the door locked?”

Ari watched him
move over to the window, glance down at the four storey drop and then pull the heavy curtains closed, apparently satisfied.

“I’m sorry,” Ari beg
an to say, trying hard to force her voice to sound normal, even though it felt as if she were gargling hot charcoals. “I was asleep; I must have been having a nightmare.”

At these words, Ari felt the tears she had been fighting so hard to supress, fall from her eyes.  Officer Ryan
s looked at her in disbelief and moved over to her.

“It’s ok; it was just a bad dream,” he said soothingly.

At his words Ari cried harder; it wasn’t a bad dream… it was reality- Larissa was dead and it was all her fault. Seeing Ari’s continued tears, Officer Ryan moved even closer. He seemed to hesitate, then pulled Ari close to him, wrapping his arms around her protectively.

“Sh
h,” he cooed, “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Ari was shaking;
the chill that she had fought so hard to supress overtook her. Feeling her shiver, Officer Ryans began rubbing her arms, his papery hands bringing instant relief.

“W
as it Ragon who attacked you?” he asked softly.

Ari pulled away
abruptly, confused by his question.

“What
, no! Why would you say that?”

“I saw your x-rays;
I know that this isn’t the first time you have been abused,” he said.

Ari knew that she had to lie. She could hardly tell the truth; that a
four hundred year old vampire had attacked her, but as he no longer had a head, he wouldn’t pose a threat to her… or anyone else. But her mind was chaotic. Her thoughts drifted painfully to Larissa, and Ari tried hard to push her friend’s lifeless face out of her mind as she mustered up the courage to lie.

“I don’t know
who attacked me,” she said, looking around the room for inspiration. “I didn’t see their face. But it wasn’t Ragon. And a few months ago someone kidnapped me. That’s what my injuries are from. They took me from my home and-“