Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (34 page)

“Mum, dad, please don’t leave me,” screamed Ari.

“You are not alone,” said her mother, “you have a…”

Ari stared wildly into the air. Her parents had vanished. Soon she was crying, thick tears streaming down her face as she raced towards the line of people in the distance and made to jump into the lake, certain it would take her to her parents. The moment her feet touched the water they burned, not hot, but deadly cold, and Ari felt Chris’s hand reach for her.

“No, Ariana Sol,” said the tangled and convoluted sound of three voices all meshed as one. “Your time is not now.”

Ari looked up at the weeping willow and saw that the tree had once again split so as to form three women who spoke to her.

“Ari,” hissed Chris, careful to keep himself out of the lake, “you can’t go in there.”

“Let go of me,” she cried, trying to pull free of Chris, “I want to stay with them. I don’t want to be alone.”

“You’re not alone. You have Ragon and the coven and all your friends... and me. Your parents wouldn’t want you to stay with them… not like this. Not if it meant dying.”

Ari felt herself drop to her knees, just as Chris pulled her to the edge of the lake and back onto the emerald grass. Though she looked up at him, her eyes were too drowned in tears to see his face, but she felt him reach down and hug her. Again she felt his icy touch, and as his hand closed around hers, she sobbed, a sound which echoed despair and grief.

“You’re not alone,” he said again, while the lake and grass and the weeping willow all faded, replaced with darkness.

When Ari opened her eyes again, she saw that she was once again standing as part of the circle. Chris was in the centre of the room looking at her, his expression blank. One by one each of the witches dropped their hands by their sides, just as a crackle of electricity filled the room and the white glowing dome which had encased the group, faded entirely. Without the hands of the girls on either side of her to keep her upright, Ari dropped to her knees.  

“What happened?” Ragon asked, racing to Ari’s side and picking her up so that he cradled her in his arms.

She was trembling, her teeth chattering and her eyelashes wet with tears.

“What have you done?” asked Ragon, glaring at Chris.

“Nothing,” Chris said indignantly.

“The connection,” said Lea, looking around in confusion, “it didn’t work?”

“Then why is Ari like this?” asked Ragon.

“The magic must have been too great for her,” said Lea, but there was something in her voice that made Ari think Lea didn’t believe what she was saying.

Ari had heard the entire conversation in her head but couldn’t reply. She felt trapped by grief, the images of her parents still burnt clearly in her mind as she tried frantically to clutch onto the little features she could still remember about them; the sweet floral smell of her mother and the strong comforting presence of her father.

“I’m going to take her back to her room,” said Ragon, and he raced to the doors.

“No wait… the locking spell,” cried Lea, but it was too late, Ragon had already reached the doors and was thrown backwards.

Ari glided from his hands and fell heavily onto the floor a few feet away. In an instant Ragon was there, brushing the hair out of her face. Ari felt her eyes jolt open. There was someone behind Ragon, and Ari watched as Chris leant down.

“Get away,” Ragon hissed.

“It’s ok,” she whispered, reaching out a hand to touch Ragon’s chest. “Chris, what is it?”

“We need to talk about what just happened,” said Chris, keeping his voice low, so that only Ari and Ragon could hear. “Come met me in my room; I will make sure Lea comes too.”

Ragon looked confused but did not argue. When he had made his way to the second level, he walked past Ari’s room and entered Chris’s instead. The door had barely closed when Chris appeared. He looked breathless, as if he had run after them.

“Lea won’t be long,” Chris panted, closing the door behind him. “She’s just finishing up with her circle I think.”

“What happened?” asked Ragon, addressing Ari.

Rather than placing her on Chris’s soft bed, he kept her wrapped tightly in his arms.

“What did you see?” asked Chris, looking at Ragon.

Before Ragon could answer, Lea walked inside the room. She looked nervous, her eyes darting from Ragon and Chris, clearly sensing the tension in the air.

“I think the circle believed me; that Ari just was exhausted” she said, “but what really happened?”

“What do you mean?” said Ragon. “What did happen? I saw the same thing we all saw, some weird circle of light form and then it broke and Ari fell to the floor.”

Ari looked astonished and whispered, “That’s not what happened.”

Immediately Chris delved into the details. When he had finished telling them what had happened, and the conversation they’d had with Ari’s parents, Ragon was clutching Ari even more tightly in his arms, while Lea sat grasping her hair, pulling it hard in disbelief.

“So Grandor did make the other immortals,” said Lea, breathing out sharply, “but he couldn’t destroy them, so he passed the responsibility down his family line, hoping someone else would be able to? Talking about passing the buck!”

“And your mum said that you were supposed to fix his mistake? But, does that mean, she thinks you should kill us?” asked Ragon, looking intently at Ari. “Like we are all damned? Never supposed to have existed?”

“I don’t know,” Ari admitted. “She said I had to do what was right.”

“Whatever that means,” said Chris.

“I wish there was some sort of rule book that told me exactly what the right thing was,” said Ari. “My mum talked about it as if the answer was obvious, but it doesn’t seem obvious to me. I mean, there is no way that just because you are a vampire that I would hurt you,” she added, looking at Ragon. “That just doesn’t make sense. I would never do anything to hurt anyone in the coven, no matter what crazy family destiny I am supposed to have inherited. And if I listen to what the destiny says, it would mean that I am supposed to rid the world of wraiths and waeres too. Like I am going to do anything to Chris or Riley, just because of what they were born as. It’s just so confusing.”

“And Ari’s mum told you that you needed to control the shadows?” asked Lea, looking at Chris with concern. “What does that mean? Is that something different to Ari’s destiny, or was she meaning that you could help her?”

Immediately Ari thought back to what had happened when Chris had attacked Ragon and the strange way that Ragon’s shadow had trembled under Chris’s gaze.

“I think,” she said, slowly sitting up in Ragon’s arms, “I think it has something to do with what happened when Chris attacked Ragon.”

Chris looked down at her and frowned.

“But I don’t know what happened,” he said finally. “I have never done anything like that before and I have never heard of any wraith being able to do it either.”

“Wraiths are necromancers,” Lea said slowly.

“Sticks and stones,” said Chris, shaking his head.

“No, what I mean is that wraiths have dominion over the dead and vampires are dead,” Lea went on, but this time Ragon interrupted her.

“Ok, so if you aren’t name calling then what exactly-” he started to say, but Lea stood suddenly and began pacing around the room.

“-don’t you see? Maybe, because Chris is part-wraith and he has embraced his good side, the necromancy in him works differently? Normally wraiths can control the dead, bring people back to life… but what if because vampires are already dead, Chris can control them too? What if the vampires are the shadows that Ari’s mum was talking about?”

“This wasn’t the first time that I heard Ari’s mum warn me about controlling the shadows,” Chris admitted.

Instantly Lea and Ragon stared at him, while Ari looked down. She already knew this, though she had never spoken of it to anyone else.      

“But even if you are right and Chris is supposed to help Ari get rid of vampires,” said Ragon, “Chris can’t control his necromancy. He almost killed me and, and he attacked Ari at the same time.”

“Ragon’s right,” said Chris, and Ragon looked at him in surprise. “When it happened, I lost myself to the power. It was as if it consumed me. I had no control over my actions at all; all I felt was hate.”

“The real question,” said Lea, sitting down with her hands in her head, “is how come we’re getting these warnings now? Vampires, waeres and wraiths have been around for centuries, maybe even thousands of years. If these shadows that Ari’s mum is warning us about does mean the vampires, then what evil thing could they be plotting that has made the spirits on the other side so uneasy?”

“And,” Ari added, recalling the warning that Chris’s father had given them when they had been in the forest, “does this have anything to do with what your dad said about the plans the Ancients had been working on for decades?”

Chapter 13- Pink and Blue
           

It was the end of October and the weather at the Pasteur Institute had dropped to around ten degrees. The days were shorter too, barely five hours of daylight, if you could call a constant cover of cloud, daylight. The normally dark green foliage which highlight the luscious flora of the Isle of Man had begun to yellow, turning the Three Prong Trek forest into an array of orange and gold trees, with much autumn leaf litter highlighting the path.

In the month which had elapsed since Patrick’s departure, the coven had not heard from him at all. Ryder had left periodically for days at a time, searching for him in every corner of the world, but to no avail. Clyde, who had become increasingly overbearing of Riley, if that was possible, had stated boldly that Patrick’s absence at this time was not necessarily a bad thing. This had created tension between him and Ryder; a tension which Ari felt whenever Ryder came back to the campus.

Riley too was more miserable than normal. Ari thought that it might have something to do with the enormous size her belly had grown. Though she was only technically twenty one weeks pregnant, her belly had grown to resemble what you would expect in someone who was close to their due date. This cemented the theory that hers and Clyde’s child was growing at a faster than normal rate, and made them think it wouldn’t be long until she went into labour. However it soon became clear that what Riley missed was shifting and the company of other waeres. Twice Clyde had found her out at the forest near Delta at night, apparently searching for Natalie, just in case the girl had retuned. Each time he had been furious, while Riley had been indifferent. When Clyde huffed and puffed about this, Riley would wave her hands and explain that it was her maternal instinct kicking in.

And then there were the missing students. There had been no word whatsoever from Lisa, and in the month since her disappearance, four more students had gone missing. Lea was convinced that Ari’s mother’s warning had something to do with the missing students, though Ari couldn’t see how. Chris and Lea had spent a lot of time together, going through every book they could get their hands on which detailed wraith necromancy, but hadn’t been able to find a single scrap of information that explained what Chris had done to Ragon. Despite Lea’s encouragement that Chris should practice controlling his powers, Chris had refused point blank. Not that they would have been able to find a vampire willing to act as the test dummy.

Ari thought it odd that despite the continued disappearance of students at the Pasteur Institute, no formal investigation by police or any other authorities had been undertaken. This, more than anything else, made Ari certain that it must be vampires who were behind the students vanishing, though again, she could see no reason why. If the vampires who had taken the students were capable of lulling the police at the Isle of Man, then surely they would be able to lull their victims, rather than making them disappear.   

After her conversation with her parents, Ari had taken out the charm bracelet that Ragon had given her for her birthday and started wearing it again. Ever since Lea had placed an anti-vampiric charm on it, she had put it in her desk draw and forgotten about it. It reminded her of the night that she had been taken by the Ancients and had almost lost Ragon, something she wanted never to think about again. But it was the only thing she owned which reminded her of her mum and dad, and she took to opening the little locket with their faces in it and looking at it, whenever she found that the image of her parents was starting to fade. This kept their memory alive.

It was less than two weeks before her end of semester exams, when Ryder came knocking on Ari’s door. She had been reading over her notes on histology of the nervous system, when she heard the frantic banging on her dorm door and rushed to it, desperate for anything that might offer a suitable distraction from her study. The moment that she had pushed the door open, Ari had raced to Ryder’s side and hugged him warmly. Promptly she noticed a change in him. Though his body was cold and hard as it always was, there was an emotionlessness to him that had not been there in life or even after he had become a vampire. As she slowly released him, Ari wondered just how much of Ryder’s humanity was tied to his relationship with Patrick.

“I am so glad you’re back,” she said, “were having a baby shower for Riley this afternoon and-”

But before she could finish her sentence, Ryder interrupted saying, “-I need to find him.”

“I don’t know how to help you; I can’t pull my magic wand out and locate him. I don’t have any control over my visions.”

But Ryder was no longer looking at her; his eyes had grown wide and hungry and after a moment’s hesitation, he raced from her room and out the door, as if struck by a sudden epiphany. Immediately Ari’s mouth fell open and she stared at the closed door in confusion. Her shoulders were shrugged in confusion when Ryder came hurtling back inside, grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her with him.

“Where are we going?” she asked, trying to keep pace with him as he sped along the corridor, down the flight of stairs, then raced along the first level landing.

“How many people do we know with a magic wand?” said Ryder. “Literally!”

Ari had just enough time to think of a witty remark involving Harry Potter, but before she could voice this, Ryder had pulled her to a stop outside of Lea’s room.    

“Knock, knock,” he said unnecessarily, after banging on Lea’s door multiple times.

A short silence followed this and before Ari had time to wonder if Lea was even inside, the door swung open.

“I need you to find Patrick,” Ryder said abruptly.

“I’m not the yellow pages,” Lea said, turning to glare at Ari, as if she were somehow responsible for this.

“No, you’re a witch,” Ryder said angrily, drawing Lea’s attention back to him.

“Yea, and you’re a vampire,” Lea pointed out obviously.

“Let’s all just try to play nice,” said Ari, trying to stand in-between the two as they glared at one another.

“You have to do it,” said Ryder, “I know you can.”

“Why would I want to?” asked Lea, “Do you think I want another blood hunter here? Weren’t you there the last time one of them tried to kill us?”

“This is Patrick were talking about!” Ryder exclaimed. “And he is not a blood hunter, he-”

“-he killed his maker. He killed part of his line. He’s a blood hunter!” Lea said flatly, then seeing the hurt look on Ryder’s face, added, “Look, even if I did want to help, I don’t even know if a tracking spell would work on a vampire. My magic is supposed to help the innocent.”

“Please,” said Ryder, and Ari saw a look in his eyes that she recognised from when he was mortal. Desperation. “Patrick is innocent.”

Ryder’s frantic look had reminded Ari of her childhood. She had been fifteen when she had been taken in by Ryder’s parents. Less than six months later they had sat the pair down and explained that they couldn’t continue to foster Ari. It was the last time she had ever let herself feel unwanted, closing her heart off to them and the rest of the world. When Ryder’s parents had told them that Ari would be leaving the next day, Ryder had begged with them to let her stay but to no avail. Now as Ryder pleaded with Lea, she remembered that same little boy, with his deploring look of hopelessness.

“Couldn’t you just-” Ari began to say.

“-I’m sorry,” said Lea, opening her door and waiting for Ryder and Ari to leave. “I can’t help.”

When Lea had closed the door on them, Ryder had stared at it as if willing it to open. When it remained closed he hung his head.  

“I’m going to help you find him,” Ari found herself saying.

“I just... just wish he knew how much I love him,” said Ryder.

“He does know. I think he’s just upset. Patrick has a lot to deal with. He just found out that the person who tricked him into becoming a vampire killed his whole family. That’s a big deal, even if you do take away the blood hunter curse.”

“Yea, I supposed. I just hope he realises soon that he isn’t evil. This stupid curse doesn’t define him,” said Ryder.

“He will. I know he will. Are you hanging around campus for a bit longer? Sandra’s throwing Riley a baby shower this afternoon. I know that they would all love to see you.”

“I have a hockey game tonight,” said Ryder.

“What? Why… since when do you play hockey?”

“Since my boyfriend decided to kill his maker and run off on me,” Ryder snapped back.

“That’s not fair. He did that to protect you. Well, will you at least try to make it?”

“I’ll try,” said Ryder, and then he left, blurring down the hallway and out of Omega Halls.

At 2.30 in the afternoon, Ari vacated her room so that Sandra could put up decorations for Riley’s baby shower. Half an hour later and she and Lea were knocking on the door, hoping to be allowed back inside. The moment that the door swung open, Ari’s mouth fell open; her room was entirely unrecognisable. Pink and blue streamers hung from every inch of the ceiling, while clusters of balloons adorned the furniture. Above the window was an enormous glittery sign that spelled out ‘Congratulations.’

Ari’s desk had been converted into a refreshment stand, where a powder blue table cloth supported many delicious looking savoury treats, while taking centre stage was a sweets display, with blue and pink frosted cupcakes. Ari was pleased to see that the curtains had been pulled closed, so that only people inside the room could see Sandra’s master piece. Still, she couldn’t help but feel nervous about the baby shower and the blanket ban Clyde had put on the event.  

“Wow!” said Ari, moving into her room carefully.

“Had a bit of free time on your hands?” Lea asked, tiptoeing into the room and sitting down on Ari’s bed, which had been dotted with pink and blue fluffy throw pillows.

“Oh, I just threw it together last minute,” said Sandra, strolling over to a bar fridge and pouring something red and thick into a tall glass. “Thirsty?”

Both Ari and Lea looked hesitantly at the cup in Sandra’s hands, before quickly shaking their heads.

“Don’t worry, I bought cordial for ye ‘al,” she said, her deep southern accent bringing a smile to Ari’s face.

“So, what time is Riley getting here?” Lea asked, just as there was a knock at the door.

“Happy baby shower,” Sandra said, hugging Riley before holding the door open to allow her entrance.

“Oh my God,” said Riley, mirroring the other’s reactions, as she stared around at the elaborately decorated room. “Where did you get all this stuff from?”

“I made it,” Sandra admitted, moving back to her cup and taking a deep sip. Sandra sighed, moving to sit next to Riley as she added, “This is the first baby shower I have ever been to.”

Ari couldn’t help but notice the sad twang in Sandra’s voice.

“Ok well, just don’t let Clyde see all of this stuff,” Riley said. “He’s angry enough that we are staying here. He would probably go insane if he found out that you were throwing me a baby shower. I’m just glad that there has been no news whatsoever about waeres on the campus.”

“Yea,” said Ari. “Now that Natalie is gone, there is nothing but a cold trail. Hopefully the vamps will think it was all just one big red herring.”