Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (26 page)

Just then a small door that serviced the stage opened. Immediately people began bustling through it, all moving to the front of the room before sitting down in the many seats. At the same time Ari and Ragon were forced in the crude iron chairs. Ragon did not struggle when the two vampires placed the chains around his wrists and legs but turned to Ari, a look of utter sorrow plain on his face. Ari waited for her binds to be done up but no one came to restrain her. Clearly they didn’t consider her enough of a threat to warrant chaining.

“You know why you have been called here,” the man said, and all around the crowd there were soft whispers which Ari couldn’t make out. “I am-” he began to say, but Ari interrupted him.

“-I know you,” she whispered; she had just realised who this man was, but before she could say any more, she felt a hard smack across her cheek and turned in anger to see Gwen, her hand recalling away.

“Get away from her,” Ragon roared, and though he struggled against his binds, he could not break free.

The moment Gwen had slapped her, one of Ari’s eyes turned green. Quickly Ari lifted a hand and gently placed it against her scorching face.

“How dare you speak,” Gwen spat.

“I wouldn’t anger her if I were you,” the man said, looking sternly at Gwen; Gwen quickly backed away and took a seat at the front of the room, so as to join the crowd of vampires below. “Now where was I, oh yes, I am James Frater, the new Vice Chancellor.”

“But you work for the Ancients,” Ari hissed, and all around the room there was an outbreak of murmuring.

Ragon was the only one who did not speak; he simply stared at Ari, his eyes screaming a song of realisation and disbelief. 

“Yes, you are of course right,” James Frater said, indifferently.

Ari had remembered exactly when and where she had seen James Frater. He had talked to her from behind the prison the Ancients had placed her in when she had been in their castle. James had offered her the key to open her prison, if she told him about the Grandor legend, but she had been unable to bargain for her freedom, knowing almost nothing about it at the time.

Slowly James turned to Ragon and said, “You have been called before the Cruor council to answer allegations that you were involved in the death of Bridget Harp. The charge of murdering a fellow vampire is punishable by the Final Death Laws. Do you deny the charge?”

Ragon looked up at James, apparently thinking hard, but before he could answer, the door to the administration room was thrown clean off its hinges, landing with a resounding crash a few feet away from the stage. All eyes turned to face the large gap in the wall, and Ari couldn’t help but smile when April, followed by the coven, all except for Sandra and Patrick, walked inside. Clyde, in his usual superior attitude, sauntered over to one of the empty seats in the front row, sat down, crossed his legs and then spoke.

“Funny,” he said, turning to look at Gwen with a cruel and calculating look on his face, “I don’t recall receiving an invitation. Ryder, were you included in this little shin dig?”

“No,” said Ryder, “and I wasn’t aware that it was customary to hold a full trial for self-defence; but I am just new at all of this. Perhaps I was mistaken?”

“No Ryder, you are quite right. Had I have known I might have gathered some kindling,” Thomas said, before a growl escaped his lips. “It seems the new Vice Chancellor wishes to take us back to the stone ages.”

“Thankfully April mentioned you were having a, err,
party
, or we might have missed it all together,” said Ryder, smiling in appreciation over at April.

April, who was looking anywhere in the room but at Gwen, was sitting nervously on the chair nearest the door. She was bitting her nails and clearly terrified by what she had done.

“Is this true? You claim that you killed Bridget in self-defence?” James asked Ragon, just as Gwen let out a loud snort.

Ragon nodded once.

“He’s lying. Let me bite his source; she can tell you the truth,” Gwen roared.

At this Ari’s eyes widened in hope. Of course, it was so simple. If Gwen bit her, she would think that she could command Ari, but Ari couldn’t be controlled by vampire toxin. She would be able to lie.

“One more outburst Ms Vine and I will have to ask you to leave,” James said, colouring up for the first time.

Ari watched the red flush dawn across his cheeks. Vampires didn’t blush. But if he were human then why would he be working for the Ancients? And, even more importantly, why would they send a human to act as an Elder?

“Please answer the question,” James said, turning to face Ragon and placing his hands on his lap.

“Yes, it was self-defence. She killed Ar… my sources teacher, and that’s when she attacked me,” Ragon explained.

“I see,” said James, reaching his hands up so that they sat in a triangle under his chin.

“That’s not true. Bridget went there to kill Ari not Ragon,” cried Gwen.

“How do you know this?” asked James.

“She spoke to a friend of hers earlier that day and then told me what she was going to do,” Gwen admitted.

“Then why did she not kill his source?” asked James, turning to stare incredulously at Ari. “This girl is mortal and Bridget was three hundred years old. Surely a vampire of Bridget’s age would have no problems in killing a mere human?”

Ari stared back at James in disbelief. He knew what she was capable of. He had been there when the Ancients had sentenced her and Ragon to death. Why was he making out that Ari was just a regular girl?

“I don’t know,” Gwen admitted, turning to point accusatorily at Ari, “there is something weird about her. She can do things…” she added, her voice trailing off as she stared at the audience, who were now looking back at her sceptically. “She did something strange in the forest when we were bringing her here.”

“Hmm,” said James, raising an eyebrow. “Can you produce this
friend
whom Bridget allegedly spoke to?”

Slowly Gwen shook her head and said, “I don’t know who it was; I never saw her. Bridget just told me that it was an old friend.”

“Well, as there is no evidence that Mr Young was not acting in self-defence, I have no other choice but to dismiss the charges against him,” James said, standing suddenly and moving over to Ragon. “Bridget is lucky that Ragon dispatched her, otherwise she would have to answer to the Final Death Laws for attacking him.”

“He killed my best friend,” Gwen screamed, her face becoming less and less beautiful as her silver hair whipped violently across her face.

“There is no proof of that,” James replied softly.

Without warning Gwen let out a manic scream and jumped onto the stage, blurring towards Ragon with her fangs beared. Before she could reach Ragon, Ari threw up her hands, instantly stopping time.

“Shit,” Ari said to herself, jumping from her seat and racing between Ragon and Gwen, who was frozen mid-leap.

Ari looked around desperately; everyone in the room had frozen. With her back pushed against Ragon’s chair and her feet dug into the carpet, she tried with all her might to push Ragon out of the way, but his chair would not budge. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye there was movement, and then someone spoke, making Ari stop dead in her tracks.  

“Let me help you,” James said, and Ari’s mouth fell open, turning to stare in horror at the man who she thought, like the rest of the people in the room, was frozen.

“But how...” Ari began to say, but before she could ask any more, she winced as her hand burnt; looking down instinctively, Ari saw that a symbol had appeared on her palm, at first it was red hot, as if it had been branded there, but quickly it faded into a black image.

She stared in disbelief at the familiar symbol; it was a gothic sun, inside which a few stars were dotted and an intricate circle wove. She had seen this symbol before, months ago, when she had been at Lea’s grandmothers house. But what did this mean? Why had it appeared now?

“Shall we,” said James, beginning to pull Ragon’s chair.

“How did you unfreeze?” she asked, looking back up at him and thinking perhaps that she has somehow electively unfrozen him, when she had been thinking of the coven. “Are you a waere?” she added, before realising that he couldn’t be; true her power to free didn’t work on waeres but only if they were in their animal form.

James looked at her curiously but did not answer. Instead he pulled hard on Ragon’s chair while Ari pushed. There was a thick trail of sweat on Ari’s brow and when she looked across at James, she saw that like her, he too was perspiring. As the pair dragged the chair across the room, Ari couldn’t help but wonder why he was helping her; she was just about to ask him this when time restarted.

Suddenly there was an ear splitting crack and Gwen ran straight into the concrete wall, right behind where Ragon had been chained to the chair a moment ago. Gwen swayed on the spot and then crumpled to the floor. Without sympathy, James stared down at the girl, clicked his fingers once, and two vampires from the crowd jumped onto the stage. Ari saw that it was the same two men who had restrained Ragon earlier. The pair frowned down at Gwen and began dragging her limp body out of the room. Whistling tunelessly, James then moved over to Ragon and produced a small silver key, which he used to unlock the chains binding him. 

April, along with the rest of the coven and indeed the majority of the vampires in the room, were staring up at James in disbelief. Several had their mouth open and one vampire in the front row was glancing back and forth from where Gwen was being carried away and then back up to James, clearly shocked by the proceedings.

“That will be all,” said James, indicating with a wave of his hand that the audience was dismissed. “Oh, and before I forget, Gwen has arranged a hockey tournament for those vampires who wish to compete. She will undoubtedly give you all the rest of the details, when she is err, less indisposed.”

There was a long silence and then several chairs scraped across the carpet all at once, and one by one the vampires left. Only the coven members, Ari and James Frater remained. James had placed the small key back underneath his jacket and moved over to Ari. Instantly Ragon stood, blurring to stand defensively in front of her. James, who did not seem perturbed by this in the slightest, smiled, just as Ragon growled and beared his fangs. Ragon was too wounded to maintain his defensive stance however, soon dropping to his knees.

“Well, I shall see you all around. These hockey games should be fun. There will be a few extra students to partake in them, some err, exchange students. We might even have a good competition,” said James, looking down at Ragon indifferently before exiting the room also.

Ari blinked after, absolutely at a loss of what to make of the new Vice Chancellor.  

Several hours after the arraignment, Ari and the coven had met in Riley’s room on the lower level of Omega Halls, so as to discuss everything which had happened. Ragon hadn’t spoken since the arraignment. Following his dismissal he had gone to the vampire library and returned with several bags of blood. Ari recognised the three small bags immediately as the same
snack
she had seen at the vending machine all those months ago, when she had broken into the vampire library with Ryder. There were two crumpled bags next to him and after a long moment, at which time there was much squelching from Ragon, the third bag joined the rest. The look on Ragon’s face was not one of satisfaction, more of frustration. It was clear that this preserved food source was not as good as the real deal. Ari equated it to having a bag of potato chips when you really wanted hot fries, though she knew this analogy wasn’t quite right.