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

by Bell Stoires

  “Stop!” he yelled.

  “Wh… what?” she stammered from below.

  Her eyes were wide in horror. His words had been more of a growl than a sentence, but Ari obeyed his command, frozen in place on the floor below him, with only her chest heaving from the excitement. Suddenly she gasped; her eyes had locked onto Ragon’s fangs, which were protruding from his mouth.

  “Get away-” he screamed, racing away from her and out onto the veranda, where he jumped down and disappeared into the night.

  Ari had watched from the floor as Ragon left the house. For a few minutes she remained there, as the last few moments of her life flashed to her, like a cruel tease. Reluctantly she dragged her dress back down past her thighs, and moved to stand up. A sudden knocking at the door made her move away from the living room, and back towards the front entrance.

  “That was quick-” she said, fumbling for the locks and then pulling the door open.

  Instantly her eyebrows rose in confusion. There was no one there. She was just about to close the door, when someone spoke.

  “I disagree; it’s taken me far too long to catch you alone,” said Matthew, emerging from the shadows of the garage and blurring over to Ari, to hold the door open before she had a chance to slam it shut.

  A crisp scream broke from Ari’s mouth, but it was stifled almost instantly when Matthew swept over to her, and silenced her.

  “Did you like the flowers?” he asked cruelly, laughing lightly to himself.

  Ari tried to bite down on his flesh, but his skin was too tough, like stone or leather.

  “You don’t seem happy to see me,” he said, as Ari began to shake in his hands, “and when I have been waiting for so long to spend some quality time with you.”

  Ari tried to struggle but Matthews grip was too strong.

  “I have been lonely without Paige you see,” he said, picking Ari up and carrying her over to the couch, while still holding his hand over her mouth. “Perhaps if you hadn’t angered Kiara so, then I would have been able to keep you alive as a pet also. I am going to remove my hand now. Please don’t scream; I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

  Slowly Matthew peeled his hand away and Ari glared up at him, her eyes bulging as she said, “Why shouldn’t I scream; you’re just going to kill me anyway.”

  “Yes,” said Matthew, “but if you behave I won’t go after Ragon when I am done with you.”

  Ari considered his words for only a moment; he had won. There was no way that Ari was going to do anything that would mean any harm would come to Ragon, or any of the other coven members. Slowly she nodded her head in submission and Matthew beamed at her, gently brushing her face so as to catch the hair that was stuck in her mouth.

  “Why are you doing this?” asked Ari, as silent tears streamed down her face.

  Matthew turned to look at her, a look of genuine confusion lining his face.

  “For Kiara of course,” he said, reaching out to pat Ari’s head, as though she were a dog.

  “But she’s in love with Ragon,” Ari stated boldly.

  As soon as she had spoken, she knew this was the wrong thing to say.

  Instantly Matthew was standing, and he leered down at her, slapping her hard in the face as he said, “That’s not true; she loves me.”

  Ari yelped when she was struck, but did not scream. She hid her face from Matthew, and reached a shaking hand out to touch her burning cheek.

  “If she loves you then why would she want me dead? If she loves you, then she wouldn’t care about Ragon, or who he is with,” said Ari.

  She didn’t care anymore if her words made Matthew angry. Her only chance was making Matthew understand that he was no more than a pawn in Kiara’s sick game to get Ragon back.

  For a few moments Matthew tried to compose himself, until finally he said, “I would be very careful what you say to me. Kiara wants me to take you back to her, but I think that she would not be too unhappy if I killed you beforehand. That’s if you behave.”

  Now Ari understood. Kiara wanted to make her suffer. Well Ari wasn’t going to play along; better to be killed quickly by Matthew, than tortured to death by Kiara. She shivered as she thought of the cruel games that Kiara would have in store for her. She knew then that she wasn’t going to let Matthew take her alive.

  “I feel sorry for you,” said Ari, turning to stare up at him, her eyes locked resolutely on his. “I thought being an immortal would mean that vampires would be capable of great wisdom, but if that were the case, you would know that Kiara was just using-”

  But her words were cut off when Matthew struck her again, this time harder. In a flash he was on top of her, his fangs raised; immediately all thoughts of self-preservation and hope left her, and she screamed.

  “Kiara doesn’t love you,” cried Ari, trying to fend Matthew off.

  “Liar,” shouted Matthew, reaching his powerful hands down so that they wrapped around Ari’s throat.

  As soon as the darkness began to capture her, she smiled. She had done it; she would not suffer but die quickly. There was one shred of regret. She would not get to tell Ragon how she truly felt. Now, as Matthew stole her life, she knew that he meant more to her than anyone else ever had.

  This thought swam in her head until she saw someone behind Matthew. For a moment her eyes stared in disbelief, and then Cambridge charged, forcing both Ari and Matthew off the couch and onto the hard wooden floors. Instantly she felt cold hands around her and she struggled, until she looked up and saw Thomas.

  “It’s ok,” said Thomas, looking quickly around.

  In one fast motion he picked Ari up, and blurred through the house until he reached Ragon’s library. Racing up the winding staircase, he finally released her into a chair in Ragon’s office.

  “Wait here,” he said, before jumping off the second landing and racing back through the door.

  Ari swayed on the spot. Her head was screaming at her, making her thoughts drawn out and unfocused. Fumbling for the banister, she began to make her way back down the stairs. On the last few steps she fell, and landed heavily to the hard wooden floor below. Struggling upright, she continued to stumble towards the door. Her hands traced the walls as she made her way through the hallway, until finally she reached the living room. A large smashing noise told her that Cambridge and Thomas were still fighting Matthew, and Ari stumbled towards them.

  “What are you doing here?” yelled Thomas, when his eyes fell on Ari.

  Again Ari tried to speak but found that she could not. She simply stood there and watched, as Thomas restrained Matthew, while Cambridge moved over to the kitchen and grabbed something from the top shelf of the pantry. Ari recognised the small purple bottle; it was the EDTA that Ragon had bought weeks ago, in case Kiara attacked them. It felt like such a long time ago that Ragon had stopped Ari from using the contents in her cooking, and joked with her that he would have to hide it. Now she watched with horror as Cambridge raced back to where Thomas was struggling with Matthew. In an instant he had torn the lid off before quickly pouring the contents of the bottle into Matthew’s open mouth.

  “No,” Matthew gurgled, but Thomas reached down and covered his mouth, forcing him to swallow the substance that was toxic to vampires.

  For a few moments Matthew struggled, but soon he began to lose his resolve, and fell back clutching his chest. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head, just as black blood poured from his ears, nose and mouth.

  The three of them stared down at the dead vampire for a long time. When the shock had worn off, Ari fell down to the floor and broke into small silent sobs, while Cambridge and Thomas began to drag Matthew’s body away.

  Before they could reach the veranda however, a noise outside made all three turn and face the front door. A car had skidded into the driveway, followed by four very fast doors slamming. Patrick was singing loudly to himself, and the rest of the group were clearly trying to shut him up.

  “Aren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with
your lies, you think I’ll crumble…” sung Patrick.

  “Enough,” Sameth said.

  “Now where did you get that?” asked Sandra.

  “You never know when gaffe tape will come in handy,” Sameth replied.

  Though Ari heard the front door open, she did not look up, but remained sopping in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest as she clutched at her throat.

  “What the hell happened?” asked Clyde, frozen at the entrance as he looked across to where Ari sat cowering.

  Ari did not reply, but turned to face Cambridge and Thomas, who were still holding Matthew’s corpse.

  Instantly Sandra and Larissa blurred over to their mates, inspecting them from head to toe, wanting to make quite certain that they had not been injured.

  “Matthew attacked Ari,” said Cambridge, looking down at the bloodied body.

  Ari had nodded dumbly at these words, until she felt a soft swoosh of air across her face, and Clyde’s face blurred into focus. Touching a cold hand to each of her cheeks, he swore low under his breath, as he surveyed her injuries. Her face was swollen, and her eyes were bloodshot and bruised. He reached up and pulled Ari into an embrace. Gingerly Ari rested her cheeks against Clyde’s shoulders; his cold hard skin was the perfect substitute for an ice pack. Ari felt as all her fear from the last half hour crashed down on her, and once again tears poured from her eyes, soaking into Clyde’s shirt. She let her whole weight fall into Clyde’s hands, and did not fight when she felt him sit down on the couch, still holding her tight in his arms.

  “Where’s Ragon?” growled Larissa. “He’s not hurt?”

  It was Ari’s turn to talk and explain what had happened, but she couldn’t find the words. She was spared having to however, when Cambridge suddenly spoke.

  “I was hunting with Thomas when Ragon called me; he told me that he had lost control and couldn’t be around Ari until he had fed,” said Cambridge. “He asked me to go home and watch her.”

  “Oh,” said Sandra and Larissa together.

  Ari let out a small cry, quickly hiding her face from the others by burying her head behind Clyde’s shoulder.

  “Well that’s just perfect; Ragon is out getting his rock of with someone else, while Ari is getting attacked,” Clyde said angrily.

  Sandra hissed loudly, then quickly moved over to Ari and lent down on one knee as she reached out a hand to touch her on the shoulder.

  “It’s hard… with mortals. Trying to control our emotions is difficult,” said Larissa.

  Ari cried a little louder but didn’t respond. She just wanted to stay where she was without speaking to anyone. She felt Clyde reach out and touch her shoulder in the same spot Sandra’s hand previously had been, and was surprised at how comforted it made her feel. From behind him she watched as Patrick begun unwinding the gaffe tape that was around his mouth, pulling it away from his skin so that it left a sticky residue.

  “He couldn’t have known this would happen,” said Patrick.

  Next to him, Sameth was staring wide eyed at Matthew’s body.

  For a long while Ari stayed on the couch in Clyde’s arms; shivering slightly or else wincing from the pain. She had heard partial conversations from the rest of the coven, but hardly took any notice to what they were saying. At one point she had listened as Cambridge and Thomas discussed how best to dispose of Matthew’s body, and her whole body had tense in response. Shortly after that she had heard Larissa telling Sandra that she had been unable to contact Ragon, and she listened as Sandra left a short voice message for him to come home right away.

  Throughout the night Clyde did not move, or speak to her, but continued to sit with her. His rigid body and cool skin, made Ari think of him as a rock that she was clutching onto, as if she were lost at sea. When all the noise around her stopped, she let her eyes close heavily. It did take long for Ari to feel herself begin to drift off. Her head was still buried underneath Clyde’s shoulder, so that she couldn’t tell if anyone else from the coven remained. As the moments of silence stretched out, she let herself fall into a deep sleep.

  Ari didn’t know what time it was when she startled from the front door opening.

  “Where is she?” said Ragon, scanning the room until his eyes fell on the couch where Ari and Clyde sat.

  In a heartbeat he had rushed to her side. His horrified eyes glanced up to Clyde, and for a moment there was malice and hatred burning from them. Ari watched him through tiny slits in her eyes, pretending to be asleep; she didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to talk to him. Gently she felt him reach out and touch her hair.

  “Thank you,” Ragon muttered.

  Clyde did not speak but inclined his head forward.

  “Is she ok?”

  “He hit her pretty badly but she’ll live,” Clyde whispered.

  Ragon let out a low growl and clenched his fists into tight balls.

  “And Matthew is dead?” whispered Ragon, shaking his head as he continued to brush his hand through her hair.

  At the mention of Matthew’s name, Ari stirred, but kept her eyes firmly shut. Both Ragon and Clyde looked down at her in concern. Clyde nodded his head and made to move off the couch.

  “No, wait,” said Ragon, suddenly standing. “Would you stay with her tonight? I don’t want her to be alone.”

  “But you’re here now,” said Clyde, making to move again.

  This time when Clyde moved, Ari’s head rolled around, and her face was revealed to Ragon. In a flash he was back down on his knees, breathing deeply as he fought the tears that threatened to overcome him. Ari’s face was purple and swollen. There were large welts at either side of her cheeks, and her eyes were black and bruised. Around her throat were large red marks that were shaped like handprints.

  “Please,” whispered Ragon, “just stay with her. I don’t deserve-”

  But whatever Ragon didn’t deserve, Ari never found out. Clyde nodded and settled himself back into the couch. Reaching out a shaking hand, Ragon tilted Ari’s head so that it was back against Clyde’s shoulder, and quickly blurred from the room. When he returned her threw a large soft blanket over her, and bent down low to kiss her on the forehead.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said in a barely audible whisper. “This is my fault.”

  Still Ari pretended to be asleep. After that Ragon did not go to his room, but out onto the veranda. Ari had heard the door slide opened and wondered for a moment, what he was doing, until she heard a piercing scream and her eyes opened wide in fear.

  Chapter 13- Rejection

  When Ari woke the next evening, she startled to find herself asleep in Clyde’s arm. Sitting up quickly, she swayed and clutched her hand to her head, winching.

  “Careful,” said Clyde, managing a half-hearted smile down at her. “Are you alright?” he added, helping her to sit upright while he stood and stretched.

  “Fin-” croaked Ari, but she was cut off speaking as her hand reached for her neck.

  Her throat felt bruised and swollen, and Ari remembered how Matthew had tried to strangle her. Instantly she stood but feeling her head spin, sat back down quickly. Seeing this, Clyde moved over to her and gently took her by the elbow and guided her to her room.

  “Thanks,” she muttered, when Clyde had helped her to the bed, pulling back the sheets and gently placing her under them.

  Clyde smiled back gingerly. It was not his usual cheeky grin, but macabre and sad.

  “Wait,” she said, seeing Clyde’s retreating back. “Where’s Ragon?”

  Clyde was just about to answer when there was a soft knock at the door.

  “How you feeling honey,” said Sandra, moving into Ari’s room and sitting next to her on the bed.

  Instantly Ari tried to smile, but found that it hurt too much.

  “Her throat is sore,” said Clyde, seeing Ari rub again at her neck.

  “That bastard,” said Sandra, reaching out to Ari and handing her two white tablets and a large glass of water.

  Ari took
the pills, recognising the small plus sign on them to be ibuprofen plus- just what she needed.

  “Do you err… mind if I have a word,” said Sandra, turning to look from Ari and over at Clyde.

  Clyde shrugged and made to leave. As Ari watched him go, she fought with the desire to ask him to stay. She had been comforted by his presence.

  “Oh honey,” said Sandra, after Clyde closed the door. “I am so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault,” croaked Ari.

  Instantly Sandra threw up a hand to shush her.

  “How about I do the talking and you lie under the covers and rest?” she said. “You know with Ragon, well any vampire really, it’s hard for us to control ourselves around mortals. At the end of the day we are predators; when you put a predator in a room with a blood source, no matter how much they care for them… sometimes emotions just take over. He wouldn’t hurt you in his normal frame of mind, but when a vampire is… excited, it’s a little more difficult to control ourselves, especially when we are already hungry,” Sandra explained. “Ragon would never have left you if he had of known that any harm would have come to you, but if he didn’t go… he couldn’t risk attacking you. He called Cambridge and Thomas the moment he was out of the house, and told them to get back and watch you.”

  “I get it,” said Ari, failing to hide her disappointment and frustration at being a human.

  “But I don’t think you do,” said Larissa, pushing Ari’s door open and joining Sandra on the bed. In her hands were two large ice packs. “I googled it, and apparently humans put ice on swellings and bruises.”