Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (36 page)

After dealing the cards, Ari watched as Peter flipped over the first three cards.

“Fold,” Chris, Peter, Perry and Rick said, throwing their cards down.

“Call,” Pip said, smiling toothily to the group at large.

“Call,” Ari said also, glancing down at the pair of kings she had drawn, wanting to make absolutely certain that it was in fact two kings.

The next card revealed was a ten of spades. Ari tried to mask her disappointment. Her last chips were in the centre of the table and there was only one more card to be revealed. Still, she had two kings; that would be hard to beat. 

“Alright kids, show your cards,” said Peter.

“There’s no way you can beat me,” Ari said, a large smile spreading across her face before quickly glancing at her cards and then locking eyes with Pip.

“Wanna bet?” said Pip, a cheeky grin spreading his lips across his face as he held his cards close to his heart.

“Ohhh, a bet,” Rick said goofily, and Ari looked at him with concern before saying, “What did you have in mind?”

“What have you got?” Pip asked.

Ari looked around and then spied her back pack. Pulling it closer, she fumbled with the zip for a moment and then searched it.

“Neurology text book, notepad, pencil case, phone,” Ari began, calling out everything that she saw.

“Did you say, phone?” asked Pip, his ears appearing to perk at this word. “Is it an iphone?”

Ari nodded but immediately regretted it.

“Ari, you’re not seriously going to gamble your phone?” asked Chris.

“Quick,” Rick said, drawing everyone’s attention to him, “Ari should call gamblers anonymous hotline. Oh wait… if she gambles her phone then she won’t be able to.”

Rick was the only one to laugh at his joke, while everyone at the table looked at him sympathetically. Clearly Rick had had one too many drinks.

“It’s just a phone,” Ari said, throwing it into the pot. “But what do you have to put up against it?”

Pips eyes had fallen greedily onto the iPhone in the middle of the table but at Ari’s words, he looked around the room desperately. Finally his eyes fell on a small laminated card. He reached for it, throwing it to join Ari’s phone in the centre of the table.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“What’s that?” Pip said, his eyes furrowing in confusion. “I stole that from one of the official Pasteur Institute vehicles. It is a parking permit for every building on the campus. Think about it… no need to pay for parking.”

Ari’s head was swimming, and without considering the consequences she threw up her hands, freezing the room instantly. Laughing lightly to herself at all the frozen faces that stared at her, she inched around the table until she was next to Pip. She sniggered when she pulled his hands down, revealing that he had a pair of jacks. As she pushed his hands back into place, Ari noticed a small band-aid on the inside of his arm. Dismissing this, Ari sped back to her chair, resuming her position and trying to appear normal when time re-started.

“Deal,” she said quickly, before Chris had a chance to realise what she had done.

“Ari you don’t own a car,” Chris said.

“Yea,” Rick added, “and we live on campus… why would you need to drive to class?”

“But I have a liriving dicense,” Ari slurred, before correcting herself, “I mean a driving license.”     

“I think you have had too much to drink,” said Chris, staring at the now empty can in front of her.

Ari scoffed and turned to look excitedly at the other boys; this was one hand she wasn’t loosing.

“Ok, ready for the last card?” Peter asked, not waiting for an answer as he flipped over the river card, revealing a four of hearts. “Alright, show your cards,” he added.

Ari was smirking when she placed her pair of kings down, immediately reaching for the pot before Pip wiggled his finger and said, “Wait just a minute.”

Ari’s mouth fell open in disbelief as he produced two aces.

“Pot to Pip,” said Peter, laughing as he added, “Pip’s pot. That kind of has a nice ring to it.”

“Oh, I get it,” said Rick, “Peter said
ring to it
, as in Ari’s phone ringing. Hahaha.”

“Wait. What?” Ari asked, watching as Pip reached his hands out and greedily pulled Ari’s phone forwards triumphantly.

“Is there something wrong?” asked Pip, then without waiting for a reply, added, “Oh, and do you have the charger as well?”

Ari scoffed. There was no doubt in her mind that Pip had cheated; the old two aces up the sleeve trick, she thought glumly to herself. But how was she supposed to protest? She only knew that he was cheating because she had cheated herself to check his cards; karma really was a bitch.    

With no chips left, Ari left the five boys to continue their game, walking back to her dorm room defeated. When she swung her door open, Ragon was sitting on her bed. He looked up at her bemused, while Ari beamed at him and raced into his arms.

“Where have you been? I just sent you a message,” he said, kissing her quickly, “And what do you taste like?”

“Oh, I might have lost my phone,” she admitted, looking down at her feet.

“Lost it where… in a vat of alcohol?”

“Not exactly,” she said, “more like I was robbed by three conniving chipmunks.”

Ragon looked confused and so Ari explained, in a somewhat drunken manner, what had happened to her phone and the reason she smelt of whiskey.

“Well,” he said, when she had finished, “at least it wasn’t strip poker. I will get you another phone tomorrow.”

“I love you. I don’t know what I would do if we never had of met.”

“You mean, if you never had of met me,” he corrected, “I met you when you were a baby.”

“Yea,” she said dreamily, still looking up at him.

“How much did you have to drink?”

“Not much,” she said, smiling wickedly.

Chapter 15- Found
              

The next morning Ari told Ragon that she needed to spend the day in the library. It was less than a week before her end of semester exams, and she was starting to get worried. In the cafeteria, Ari rushed down her breakfast. Uncharacteristically she was nearly the only one there. Another boy sat alone at an opposite table, eating a bowl of cereal, but other than that, the place was deserted. Where was everyone? When Ari was finished with her toast, she moved from the empty cafeteria and towards the library. She had organised to meet Riley there, who had told her that she needed to get out of Omega halls for the day. Ari suspected that Clyde’s overbearing nature had contributed to Riley’s claustrophobia, though it might have been the fact that at any day, she might go into labour.

As Ari made her way down the wide steps of the cafeteria, she couldn’t help but notice the large masses of students around the campus. There were several groups of them, all talking excitedly and making their way towards Delta halls. Was this why no one was in the cafeteria? Was there some sort of event on today that she hadn’t heard about? Shaking her head in confusion, Ari walked towards the library. She really needed to study today, not worry about some gathering she hadn’t been invited to.

Walking through the large glass doors of the biological science library, Ari tiptoed past the information desk and down the flight of stairs. She didn’t have to look hard to find Riley. Apart from the library assistant, she was the only one there. Riley was sitting at a table by the window, her feet propped up on a chair as she rubbed her enormous stomach slowly. When she spotted Ari, Riley closed the book she had been reading.

“Hey,” Riley said brightly, moving her bag and making way for Ari’s things.

Ari dropped her heavy bag onto the floor, earning her a disapproving stare from the librarian, and quickly focused her efforts on quietly retrieving her laptop, pen and paper from her bag.

“Hey,” Ari whispered.

“Why are you whispering? There’s like, no one here. I mean, where is everyone? The halls were deserted when I left.”

“I’m whispering,” said Ari, keeping her voice low, “so that we don’t get kicked out of here by the noise police.” 

Ari glanced obviously towards the librarian then quickly turned her laptop on. She hadn’t even had a chance to log in when Riley spoke again, distracting her.

“Still no news about Natalie?” Riley asked.

“Nope. At least, Lea hasn’t told me if she has.”  

“Well, at least she’s safe wherever she is. It would be nice to find her before I go into labour, but seeing as that could be any day now, I doubt it,” said Riley.

Ari nodded dumbly and refocused her attention on her notes. Unfortunately, Riley was proving more of a distraction than a feasible study partner. The librarian, whose dangly legs and oversized thick spectacles, made her look like a praying mantis, had even looked up several times to berate them. Each time Ari would shush Riley, who would temporarily become quiet, until finding another reason to talk.  

“Does Lea know why it is taking so long to find Natalie?”

“I’m not sure,” Ari said in a whisper, looking up from her neurology text book; truthfully, Ari hadn’t asked Lea about the progress of the tracking spell.

Just then Riley’s phone buzzed loudly and she reached for it, while the library assistant glared at her. Riley snicked at this response, flicking her phone onto silent before waving the now harmless mobile in front of the insect-like woman and saying, “It’s ok, encase you haven’t noticed, but we’re the only ones here.”

Ari felt her face rush with blood as she shrunk in her chair, while Riley read the text message she’d received.

“Speak of the devil! Natalie just texted me,” said Riley, a grin spreading across her face.

“What!” said Ari, failing at keeping her voice quiet. When the librarian glared at her, Ari added in a barely audible whisper, “What did she say? Why is she texting you?”

“She wants me to meet up with her. She said that she’s with Clyde and she wants to speak with me.”

“That’s great,” said Ari, closing her laptop and packing up her desk. “After that we can tell Lea to call of the search party.”

“Um, Ari, I think it would be better if I went alone. I mean, I don’t want to overwhelm her. You know how much she freaked out the last time.” Ari’s face fell, and Riley added, “It’s a good sign that she is with Clyde, but I don’t think we should push her. You know, not too much too fast.”

Ari nodded her head, slowly reopening her laptop as she said in a voice, far too hearty to belong to her, “No problems.” 

Ari was trying hard not to feel hurt or excluded. Being an orphan had made her no stranger to being alone. She had learnt the hard way that in order to protect herself, she needed to close her heart to the people who threatened to break it. But all of that had changed when she had met Ragon. He had welcomed her into his life, and the coven had become the closest thing to a family that she had ever known. Riley was now as much a part of that family as everyone else in the coven. The fact therefore, Riley was suggesting that it just be her and Clyde to meet Natalie, made Ari utterly jealous. With this anger in mind, a suspicious thought cross Ari’s mind.

“How did Natalie get your number?” said Ari.

“Hmm, what?” said Riley, packing up her things as she hummed tunelessly to herself.

“Natalie. How does she know what your phone number is?”

Riley looked at Ari knowingly, and Ari tried to force her face into a normal expression.

“Clyde must have given it to her,” said Riley. “They are together. She probably told him that she wanted to speak with me and he gave her my number.”

Ari looked up tentatively at Riley; that explanation did make perfect sense.

“But why would Natalie go to Clyde?” Ari added, as if desperate to think of reason why she should be included. “Don’t you think that is a bit weird? Natalie did run out on us when she found out that we were hanging out with vampires.”

“Maybe she has had time to think about? Or maybe she just saw him and asked if he knew where I was?” Riley suggested.

“Yea, maybe.”

“I’ll see you later, ok,” said Riley, reaching down over her large stomach so as to hug Ari.

Ari watched her walk away, moving as fast as her swollen ankles would carry her.

After that Ari tried to regain her concentration but couldn’t. Her mind was preoccupied, wondering what Riley, Natalie and Clyde would be talking about without her. Reluctantly she pulled her copy of Fudge, Wensy and Adam’s Neurology textbook back out of her bag, and begun resuming her search on the different types of Ataxia. It had been at least half an hour since Riley had left and Ari had only just managed to get back into her study, when a loud voice startled her from behind.

“Where have you been? I have been calling and calling and you haven’t answered,” said Lea, racing over to where Ari was sitting and falling into the chair that Riley had previously occupied.

The library assistant stood at this outright disruption and Ari held out her hands apologetically, afraid that this last straw might cause her to be thrown unceremoniously from the library. 

“Oh,” whispered Ari, recalling that she had lost her phone to Pip the previous night. “I lost my phone last night.”

Lea’s face was anxious. Her red curly hair was slightly frazzled and her eyes were large and round.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ari, trying to keep her voice down.

“It’s Natalie-” said Lea, but before she couldn’t continue, Ari had interrupted her.

“-oh, it’s ok. We don’t need you to find her anymore. She just messaged Riley and asked to meet with her.”

“What?” Lea exclaimed, her eyes bulging from her head as she glanced nervously through the library window. “Ari I found Natalie this morning. My scribing spell worked and it said that she was in Latvia. That’s why I have been trying to call you.”

At these words Ari’s stomach dropped. Latvia was the domain of the Ancients. Why would Riley be there? How could she be there? She had just messaged Riley… hadn’t she? Standing suddenly, Ari swayed on the spot then raced out of the library. The librarian looked as if she wanted to reprimand her, but Ari didn’t give her the chance. She was already out the door by the time the praying mantis-like woman had stood.

The moment that Ari had reached the large glass doors and they had swung open, a terrible image reverberated in her mind and she dropped to the ground. She felt her knees crumple against the wet slushy grass, just as violent shiver crept up her arms and legs. Soon her eyes became glassy, no longer able to focus on where she was as she slipped into a vision of the future.

Many scenes came to her, unfurling on top of each other, so that it was difficult to discern one moment from the next. Finally, when the images had become crisper, sharper, she recognised a building. It was the Forensic Agency and Research Morgue. There were a group of nervous students waiting in line just outside the Farm. Above them a sign had been erected, reading: ‘Free flu vaccines.’

“Next,” a tall thin woman said, and Ari watched as Emily, the missing girl from Lea’s circle, made her way from the front of the cue.

Emily was almost as tall as the woman who had directed her. The woman placed a comforting hand on the small of Emily’s back and gestured her through the front door. Emily followed obediently, walking from the front door and into the building with a slight sense of unease. The building felt freezing, as if the air conditioning had been set too low and the fans at high speed. Ari didn’t respond to the cold as she moved through the room however, she was trapped in her vision and though she knew that it was cold from the way that Emily shivered and rubbed her shoulders, she could no more be affected by the temperature than she could speak to Emily in the past.  

“Sorry,” Emily said, wincing as the woman indicated a chair for her to sit in, “I don’t like needles.”

The woman smiled knowingly at Emily and rolled the girl’s sleeve up, tracing a slender finger up from her wrist and the vein underneath.

“Well then, I imagine you will like this far less,” said the tall woman, and to Ari’s and Emily’s horror, the woman smiled with sharp pointed teeth and lunged at Emily’s arm.

Emily barely had time to scream out, let alone react, and a moment after the woman had struck at her, Emily’s eyes went oddly dull and glassy.

“
Now, cover that with a band-aid. If anyone asks you will tell them that you got the free flu vaccine. You will suggest they do the same. Tomorrow you will return to the Farm. Ensure you are not seen entering the facility by anyone and tell no one what you are doing. Do you understand
?”

Emily, already placing the band-aid that Ari had seen on her the morning that she had gone missing, nodded dumbly at the vampire and said, “I understand.”

Ari watched as Emily got up off the chair and the scene dissolved. It was night now. The heavily blackened sky looked ominous. Ari watched as a tall figure raced across campus, careful not to be seen. The figure was dressed in tracksuit pants and a jumper, with the hood covering their face. Ari watched the person transcend from Delta halls and over to the Farm, where they removed their hood. It was Emily again.