Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3)

by Stoires, Bell

  “You won’t be able to transport,” said the wraith. “Touching her drains your power. Good and evil cannot exist together. They are magnets of one another. As you hold her, she becomes weaker, as do you.”

  The horror at this realisation was plain on Chris’s face, and he turned to Ari, grinding his teeth together as he tried to speak without screaming.

  “Follow me,” he stammered, racing back along the path. “We-have-to-get-her-out-of-here.”

  Ari turned around, curious to see Chris’s dad’s reaction, but the wraith was no longer there.

  For ten minutes straight Chris ran with Lea, all the while shivering and shaking, as her magic broke down his strength. Finally he came to a stop, placing Lea on the forest floor and collapsing down next to her, as violent tremors shook his body.

  “What can I do?” asked Ari, immediately at his side.

  Chris didn’t respond, but after a moment moved back to Lea and lifted her again. The second time that Chris was forced to stop it took longer for him to recover. His face was pale, his eyes bulging and Ari knew that the effort of carrying Lea was costing him greatly.

  “Maybe I should call someone?” asked Ari, reaching for her phone.

  “NO!” Chris shouted, grinding his teeth together as he forced each word out. “Didn’t you hear him? He thinks I can’t do this because I’m evil.”

  “Chris-” Ari began to say, but Chris was already reaching for Lea again, a look of sheer determination and agony staining his face.

  Chris had only just managed to pick Lea up when the pair heard loud rustling in the bushes nearby, and both turned to see what had caused the disturbance.

  “Hello?” Ari called out, looking around.

  Chris dropped to his knees, letting Lea fall gently from his hands, so that she was resting on the ground again.

  “Seriously? We’re in a forest full of supernatural whatever’s and you go with hello?” said Chris, pounding his fist into the ground, apparently still battling with the pain of having touched Lea.

  “What are you doing here?” someone said, and both Chris and Ari craned their necks, trying to see who had spoken.

  A girl with red coloured hair emerged from the darkness.

  “Natalie?” Ari breathed, relieved to see the girl they had gone to all this trouble to find.

  Natalie walked forwards, her wild red hair licking the side of her face, before the girl tucked it behind one ear.

  “What are you doing out here?” Natalie asked again.

  “Listen to me,” Ari said frantically. She was half frozen from the chilly weather and her teeth chattered noisily, distracting her from talking. “You have to get out of here! The vamps know about you and that you are a waere. They are coming here to find you. Whoever attacked us saw you shift. It’s not safe for you here anymore.”

  The previous surprised look on Natalie’s face had now entirely vanished. Her eyes had become small slits, and her face had gone a shade or two paler.

  “Shit,” Natalie whispered, before looking at Lea, who was still unconscious on the forest floor and then Chris, who was shaking violently besides her. “What wrong with them?”

  “It’s a long story, but you have to get out of here, now,” said Ari.

  “Ari,” Chris said, and Ari spun around. “I have to get Lea back to the campus.”

  “Go,” Ari replied, “we’re here because of me. Get Lea out of here and I will meet you back at Omega. I will be fine… GO!”

  Ari watched as Chris reached back down for Lea and ran away.

  “And you have to get out of here too,” said Ari, turning around to speak to Natalie, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

  Ari stared into the darkness, shaking her head finally and muttering angrily under her breath. Quickly she spun around to face the path Chris had disappeared down, hoping that if she moved fast enough she would meet up with him before long. After a few moments she was relieved to see the silhouette of a man in front of her, and she raced towards him, before realising that it was not one man, but two.

  “What are you doing out here?” one of the men said, and Ari froze dead in her tracks, ready to freeze anything that looked to be a threat.

  Her eyes were narrowed, but she smiled thankfully when she realised that it was Ryder and Patrick.

  “Don’t scare me like that,” she said, racing to Ryder and hugging him hard.

  “Scare you, muffin?” said Ryder. “The Grandor descendant is worried of a vampire?”

  “Well,” she countered, “there are two of you.”

  “Just going for a late night stroll?” Patrick asked sarcastically. “I thought you were band from this forest? Besides, aren’t you supposed to be going to Ragon’s presentation?”

  “I’m sleep walking,” she said, smiling as she held her hands outright and began ambling around the forest dumbly. “At least, that it what you will tell Ragon if he somehow finds out about this. Which, he better not, otherwise you might just find you really do need to be afraid of the Grandor Descendant!”

  “Well, I assume that whatever you came out here for is finished?” asked Ryder, looking at her sceptically.

  “Yep,” she said. “But what are you doing out here?”

  “We took over from Sandra and Thomas; were looking for waeres,” said Patrick, winking boyishly at her.

  “You just missed one,” said Ari.

  “That’s why you’re out here?” asked Patrick, sounding astounded.

  Purposefully Ari ignored him, holding her hands out as she pretended to snore.

  “Hmmm,” said Patrick, while Ryder laughed.

  “Any chance you could give me a speedy lift back to my halls?” she asked, her thoughts now back with Lea.

  “Allow me,” said Ryder, reaching for Ari and throwing her onto his back.

  “Wait a minute,” said Patrick, his hands on his hips, “aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Ryder looked back at Patrick in confusion.

  “The sailor’s farewell,” said Patrick, tapping his foot expectantly.

  “Oh yea, we are going to go to the campus club on Sunday. It’s the last day the soldiers will be here,” Ryder said gloomily.

  “Anyway,” Patrick added. “We all should go. You know, make a night out of it. Have a Sunday session!”

  “Sounds great,” said Ari, only half listening, her thoughts still with Lea and Chris.

  The instant that Ryder dropped her off at Omega halls he left, blurring back towards Delta and the forest below. Ari raced up the stairs to the first landing and sped along the corridor, until she reached Lea’s room. She didn’t knock but burst through the room. At once her eyes fell on Lea, who was laying on her small bed, her hands folded over her chest and her eyes closed. If Ari didn’t know any better, she might have thought that Lea was sleeping. Chris was knelt down beside her, looking worried.

  “How is she?” asked Ari, moving towards the pair slowly.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he said.

  The moment Chris had spoken, Lea’s eyes had flickered open and she looked up in bewilderment.

  “How you feeling?” asked Ari.

  “I told you,” was all that Lea said.

  “What?” Ari asked, leaning in closer.

  Just before Lea’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, she glanced at Chris, saying, “You’re good.”

  “Maybe her mind is muddled?” said Chris, but Ari noticed that he moved even closer to Lea, brushing away the damp hair that stuck to her face, even though his hand jolted as he did so, as if he had received an electric shock.

  “You can’t touch her,” said Ari, reaching down to Lea and propping her head under a pillow. “Didn’t you hear what your dad said? It will drain both your powers.”

  As she tucked Lea under the covers, something small fell from Lea’s pocket and Ari reached down to retrieve a phone.

  “I think she’s getting worse,” said Chris, indicating Lea’s cheeks, which were now so flushed that they appe
ared bruised. “We need another witch. We need someone to heal her. That’s what he said; only good magic could undo this.”

  Again Ari looked down to Lea’s phone; something had stirred in her memory. Flipping the phone open, she scrolled through the list of names, until her eyes lit up when she read one, Belinda Cove, the witch who had helped them steal Malleus Maleficarum from the library. Immediately she wrote the girl a message and pressed send.

  “What are you doing?” asked Chris, staring at Ari in confusion.

  “When we needed to get that witch hunter book from the library, Malleus Maleficarum, Lea told me that there were other witches on campus,” explained Ari. “I just texted one and asked her to come and help.”

  Five minutes later there was banging on Lea’s door.

  “Open up Lea,” someone said from behind the door, and Ari rushed to her feet. “I don’t know what you want but after this, you will owe me two favours.”

  Ari swung the door open and Belinda stared back in confusion.

  “What the hell?” Belinda said, staring at Ari, then Chris, until finally her eyes rested on Lea. “Lea just sent me a message, but, but what’s going on?”

  “Lea’s sick,” said Ari, moving back inside the room.

  Belinda rushed inside, her hand hovering over Lea as she said, “What happened to her?”

  “A wraith did something to her,” said Chris, and Belinda looked up at him in surprise.

  “Who are you?” she asked, staring at the red welts that had formed all over Chris’s hands, from where he had held Lea.

  “He’s a friend, and he knows about all of this,” said Ari, moving defensively to Chris. “Can you do anything to help Lea?”

  Belinda’s eyes darted curiously from Chris and Ari, then back down to Lea.

  “What did the wraith do?” asked Belinda, closing her eyes and revolving her hands just above Lea’s body. “It’s like her power is on the surface, blocking me.”

  “The wraith said that he bound her power to her skin,” said Chris, shaking his head.

  Belinda’s eyes widened and she reached for Lea’s hand, where a small circle was beginning to glow.

  “That’s the Crown symbol,” said Belinda, her face draining of colour. “The fact that we can see it… it’s not good. Lea said that you were one of us,” Belinda added, looking at Ari. “Do you have any healing powers?”

  Ari shook her head and Belinda frowned, then reached for her phone and frantically began sending messages.

  “What are you doing?” asked Chris.

  “Telling the circle what has happened,” said Belinda, not looking up from her phone. “Healing, this type of magic is beyond me. The only way I know how is to gather a circle of thirteen.”

  “Ari,” said Chris, pulling Ari up to her feet and directing her out of Lea’s room, “may I have a word.”

  Belinda, who was still texting on her phone, did not look up as the pair walked outside into the hallway. Chris directed her to the end of the hallway, and pulled her into the bathrooms.

  “What the hell are we going to do?” he whispered, glancing nervously at the empty cubicles. “Do you think Belinda thinks we’re witches? She said that she needed a circle of thirteen witches. But I’m not a witch. I won’t be able to do anything to help heal her. All I can do is bring back the dead… and Lea isn’t dead.”

  Ari’s eyes widened; she hadn’t even thought that Belinda might want to include them in her plan.

  “Should we run?” asked Chris, looking back at Lea’s room. “I don’t want to, but if they find out what I am… what if they refuse to help Lea because of it?”

  Ari looked back at Lea’s room also. What other option did they have?

  “Ok, you go back to your room,” said Ari, “I will go tell Belinda that something urgent has come up and that we have to leave. And after that I have to go to Cruor Halls.”

  “Huh? Do you really think now is the time to see your boyfriend?”

  “Ragon’s thesis presentation is on in like half an hour. If I don’t go, he will know something is up,” she explained. “I’ll see you later, ok?”

  Chris nodded and Ari raced back to Lea’s room. When she opened the door, her jaw dropped. Lea’s room was entirely packed with people. They all turned to stare at her, clearly uncertain of what she was doing there. Moving past the muttering people, Ari neared Belinda, who was sitting a little way back from Lea, watching as a very young girl was drawing something on Lea’s hand.

  “Belinda,” said Ari, “Chris and I… we have to go.” Belinda looked confused and so Ari added, “We, um, heard about a vampire attack in the woods. We need to go and make sure that no one was hurt.”

  Ari wasn’t sure where this lie had come from, but when Belinda nodded, Ari sighed in relief.

  “Lea will be ok?” Ari added, looking down at her. “Won’t she?”

  The young girl who was crouched down low near Lea suddenly stood. She walked over to Ari and held out her hand. Ari looked down and saw the Crown family crest drawn there. Slowly the mark was growing and then several other people in the room looked down at their hands also, where the image of a crescent moon and bird was beginning to appear.

  “I have spread the spell so that all of us take it in,” said the girl; her voice was squeaky, making Ari think that she couldn’t be more than seventeen years old. “It is the only way to lessen Lea’s load. She will live.”

  “Thank you,” said Ari, moving back to the door.

  She took one last look at all the people inside Lea’s room. Some of them had become pale, while others looked as if they were flushed and had sat down quickly. None seemed to be concerned at their predicament; rather there was a determined look on their faces, as if suffering was tied to their fate as being witches.

  It was ten to midnight when Ari finally reached Cruor halls. Though she waved at Ragon, who was on stage and preparing for his presentation, her mind was still firmly with Lea. She was glad to see that Ragon’s face did not hint at all of any anger. This was good; she was afraid that Patrick or Ryder might have let slip that Ari had been in the forest and had gone against Clyde’s command to stay away from Natalie. She knew that she should tell Ragon about what had happened tonight, but she was too afraid to. Clyde’s anger would be nothing to Ragon’s if he found out that Ari had risked her safety by going into the forest, yet again. She could just imagine what he would say. That she was stupid, foolish, foolhardy, and many other things, all of which, she was ashamed to admit, were probably true. But what was she supposed to do? Not help Riley? Ignore the fact that Natalie had saved them and was now in danger because of it. No, being a coward wasn’t the type of person Ari was. True, she probably could have gone about it a different way, but it wasn’t like she had gone by herself. Lea and Chris had come too. Ari sucked in a sharp intake of breath; Lea was the one who was paying for her rash decision. Maybe Ragon was right; maybe she didn’t think before she did things?

  Scanning around at the somewhat subdued faces of the vampire student body, Ari couldn’t help but feel out of place. She had been surprised when Ragon had invited her a few weeks ago to attend his thesis presentation. Like gaining admission to the vampire library, she had thought that his top secret research into the vampire’s reaction to sunlight would be off limits to everyone with a pulse. Then again, all these vampires thought that Ari was his source, that she had been lulled by him. Temporarily she pictured what it would be like if this really were the case. Right now she would probably be standing next to him, her arm outstretched for him to feed on if his nerves got the better of him.

  “Goodnight everyone,” said Ragon, when the last of the seminar attendees arrived and had taken their seats. “My name is Ragon Young and together with Bridget Harp, we will be presenting on photosensitisation in vampires.”

  Ari beamed when Ragon spoke, but her smile quickly faded when Bridget glared at her. Ari retuned the death stare with interest, and was rewarded when Ragon had to poke Bridget in the elbow to g
et her attention, so that she could continue her part of the presentation.

  “Right,” said Bridget, fumbling through her notes. “The vampire species as a whole are no stranger to the damaging effects of sunlight. Though UV glass and cloud cover can protect us from the harsh rays, there are many climates in the world in which our inhabitation is almost impossible.”