“Don’t you own any clothes?” Ragon snapped, glaring at Chris.
Again Ari was reminded that she was wearing Chris’s jumper and she hastened to remove it.
“It’s ok,” said Chris, leaning down and touching Ari’s cheek once more, “you keep it. You’re still half frozen. Just, just promise me that you will think about what I said, ok Ari?”
Behind Ari there was a snarl and she looked up to see Ragon racing at Chris, his fangs beared and a murderous look in his eyes. Ari stifled a scream, anxious about drawing attention to her room, and watched helplessly as the pair began throwing fast punches at one another.
“You bastard,” said Ragon, leaping on top of Chris and punching him hard in the jaw. “I knew wraiths were evil but I didn’t think that extended to stealing other people’s girlfriends.”
Chris spat blood onto the floor, smiling up at Ragon as he swung his leg to kick him in the back of the head. Ragon fell to the ground, but before Chris could do much more, Ragon was on top of him again, throwing punch after punch. After a while Chris stopped fighting and focused solely on defending himself from the onslaught.
“Ragon stop… you’re going to kill him,” screamed Ari, racing from her bed and trying to pull Ragon away. “Ragon, stop, please!”
And for a few moments the pair did just that… froze, so that they and everything around them was completely still. But the bliss did not last long; Ari had no time to think, let alone act, and before she had thought of what to do next, her freeze wore off and Ragon’s fist smashed down hard into Chris’s ribs, so loudly that she was certain she’d heard them crack.
“Please stop this,” she screamed again, knowing full well her powers would only delay the inevitable.
But Ragon would not or could not stop. His rage and jealously had consumed him entirely. Ari tried throwing herself between the pair, but it was no good, they just kept fighting around her. Ari looked down helplessly at Chris; his face was a half bruised and bloody mess, and Ari was sure that he wouldn’t be able to take much more of a beating and remain conscious. She was just considering throwing the door open and calling for help, when she noticed something very odd. The light in the room had seemed to fade, sucked in somehow. But it wasn’t just the retreating light which had caused the darkness; the shadows in the room were spreading, stretched out as if there were torches placed intricately to illuminate them.
Ragon too had noticed the bizarre change; his eyes were wide, almost cat-like, as he glanced nervously around. Ari was just about to ask what the hell was going on, when Chris stood. His eyes were the colour of coals that had burnt out. Rather than looking at the shadows or even being surprised by them, he was glaring at Ragon. Chris’s dark gaze fixated on Ragon’s shadow, and Ari watched in horror as the black mass seemed to tremble and recoil. At the same time Ragon flung his hands to his head, his mouth stretched open in a silent scream, as he fell to his knees in agony.
“Chris, Chris what are you doing?” Ari cried, racing to Ragon’s side as she tried to pull him from his trance.
Neither Ragon nor Chris responded. Chris was now advancing on Ragon, his hand held out, pointing straight at Ragon’s chest. Still with his mouth open in terror, Ragon reached a shaking hand to his nose, where thick congealed blood had begun to pour. Ari tried to wipe the blood away, but the stream did not slow and soon it was leaking from his eyes and ears as well.
“Chris no!” said Ari, standing and shaking Chris.
Chris looked at her indifferently, his black eyes boring right through her blue ones, as if he couldn’t see her at all. Behind her Ragon collapsed; there were large pools of blood around him, growing larger and larger, like a sea of fiery red against her carpet.
“Chris,” screamed Ari, and she shook him hard, trying to force him to hear her.
Chris snarled at her and in one quick motion, hit her with the back of his hand so that she flew across the room. She hit the wall hard, her head smashing against the brickwork as she crumpled to the floor.
“Chris… you’re not like this,” Ari whimpered, and from behind Chris’s black eyes, something green flickered and he blinked down at her in confusion. “You’re not evil.”
When Ari looked up, Chris’s eyes were no longer empty but remorseful; he stared from Ari and then over to Ragon, as if unsure of what had happened.
“I, I don’t understand,” he said, and as he spoke his whole body trembled, and all around him the shadows in the room shuddered also.
Slowly the room lightened, the shadows retreating into the darkness. Ari tried to focus on Ragon; though he was still lying in a pool of blood, he was no longer bleeding and she pulled herself across the room, desperate to reach him.
“I’m, I’m sorry,” Chris mumbled, racing for the door and throwing it open before disappearing.
“Ragon?” breathed Ari, her face an inch from his as she pulled him towards her, his blood staining her clothes and sinking through to her skin.
Ragon did not answer at first. He looked dazed, half dead, but then slowly, very slowly, he opened his eyes.
“What happened?” he choked, coughing up dark blood which stuck to his lips.
“I don’t know.”
Ragon nodded dumbly, reaching his hand out as he tried to prop himself upright. The muscles in his arm looked paler than ever she’d seen before, and they quivered pathetically as he tried to use them. As much as she could, Ari helped. Her head was pounding and she was shivering, but she managed to reach across and pull him so that he was sitting. He looked ghastly, deathly pale and his fangs were unsheathed as he stared off into space before his eyes locked on her neck.
“Get away from me,” he snarled.
“But, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this… any of this to happen. I love you Ragon. It was just a kiss, just a stupid drunken kiss. It didn’t mean-”
“-no,” said Ragon, his voice weak and ragged, “I can’t be near you. I need blood.”
Ragon staggered to his feet; he made it two paces towards the door before he collapsed to the floor again.
“Ragon!”
Throwing her hands up into the air, Ari stopped time. She didn’t know what else to do. Quickly she reached for her phone and called Clyde; his number had been the first one to pop up in her contact list and she waited with bated breath for him to answer.
“Clyde,” she yelled, her slippery red stained fingers trying hard to grip onto the phone, “come quick to my dorm room. Bring blood. Ragon’s hurt.”
“Shit,” Clyde said, and then hung up the phone.
After that Ari moved to Ragon’s side. Her head was still spinning from where she had hit the wall, but she ignored this; she had to help Ragon. With all the effort that she could muster, she looked around the room for something, anything that she could use to cut herself with. Finally her eyes fell on Ragon’s fangs. They were still unsheathed, glistening white, like two sharply carved knives. In an instant she brought her hands down onto them, crying out in pain as the skin of her wrist tore away from the pressure. Red blood blossomed from the wound and she prised her wrists against Ragon’s mouth, willing him to drink.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the door to her dorm swung open and Clyde raced in, shortly followed by a stranger; a dark haired girl, Ari had never seen before. Clyde looked down at the bloody mess, quickly throwing Ari onto the bed as he directed the girl to Ragon. The girl moved silently, sitting down cross legged as she copied Ari’s previous actions and thrust her wrists into Ragon’s mouth.
“What happened?” asked Clyde, moving over to Ari’s bed and reaching out to touch her head.
“Chris,” said Ari, struggling to find the words, “he did something to Ragon. I don’t know what, but, Ragon just stated bleeding.”
Clyde looked confused. His eyes tore from Ari’s and back down to Ragon and the girl. Ari forced herself to sit up; she had to know that Ragon would be ok. With a pang of relief, Ari watched as Ragon’s pale hands reached out to the girl and p
ulled her closer. No longer content with her wrists, he lashed at her throat, tearing the skin away and drinking heavily, the blood overflowing from his mouth and joining the red stains on the carpet.
After a while Ragon’s eyes seemed to glaze over, his expression less feverish, and he pulled himself away from the source. He looked down at the girl; she had fallen to the floor, her dark hair pilling over her face, masking her identity. In one fast motion, Ragon’s eyes widened and his face dropped.
“Ari, Ari?” he said, moving to the girl and cradling her in his lap. “Oh God. No. No. No.”
Before Ragon could wipe the bloody hair from the girl’s face, Clyde said, “Ragon. That isn’t Ari.”
Ragon’s eyes shot up, first finding Clyde, and then he looked past him, and saw Ari. She smiled weakly at him, not knowing what else to do.
“Are you ok?” asked Clyde, moving from the bed so as to help Ragon to his feet.
“What happened?” he asked, still slightly dazed.
Both Ragon and Clyde turned to face Ari, expectantly.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I think it was Chris.”
“But how…” Clyde started to say, until a soft whimper from the floor reminded everyone of the girl’s presence. “I had better take her to the Pasteur Hospital. Will you be ok by yourself? Do you need more blood?”
As Clyde spoke he glanced at Ari. Slowly Ragon shook his head, and Ari watched as Clyde moved to the girl on the floor, lifting her up into his hands as he carried her towards the door and out of the room.
“I’m, I, I don’t know what to say,” Ari muttered, the moment she was alone with Ragon.
Ragon too seemed speechless. He was watching Ari, his eyes fixed on her head, where she was certain a large bruise must already be forming. In an instant he moved to her, so fast that she felt her hair flick out to the side then fall flat as he reached her.
“Ari,” Ragon whispered.
Ari felt her eyes grow heavy; she was tired and sore, and all she wanted to do was to lie down against the soft pillows and fall asleep.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and as she spoke she swayed, feeling gravity work against her. “I’m so sorry.”
Ragon’s eyes searched her body, his gaze finally resting on her punctured wrists. In one quick motion he was beside her, tearing the sheets of her bed and wrapping them furiously around her bleeding hand. She tried to push him away. Her wrist, her life, none of it mattered right now. She didn’t care that her head felt too sizes too big; she didn’t care that her wrist fell cold and tingly; all that mattered was Ragon.
“Please,” she stammered, “please tell me that you love me. Please tell me that we are going to be ok!”
Ari had never felt so utterly helpless in her life. Ragon looked down at her, his face grave.
“Love you?” he asked, looking at her in confusion.
For one terrible moment, Ari feared the worst. She felt sick, felt the bile rise in her throat, and then Ragon spoke again, and everything, all the guilt and the sadness, was gone.
“Of course I love you. I have always loved you. From the first moment I saw you, even as an infant, I have loved you. You can’t know what that meant to me. Just to be able to feel… love. It doesn’t matter to me if you don’t return it. You need to always know that I will love you. I would have been happy, just knowing that you were alive, that you had a chance at a happiness I couldn’t.”
“But,” said Ari.
“Do you seriously think I cared about some stupid kiss?”
“But,” she said again, not believing what he was telling her.
“Did you mean what you said? When you told Chris that you should be with someone normal... is that what you want? Because I can handle you making a mistake; I’m old enough not to be petty about a kiss, but if you had feelings for the wraith… if you want to be with someone normal. I’m not normal Ari, I never will be. And I can’t blame you for wanting to be with someone who won’t accidently hurt you. But I can’t change who I am.”
Ari shook her head so fast that she felt the room slip out of focus. Quickly she stopped herself, trying hard to inch closer to Ragon, desperate for him to hold her.
“No. I don’t want to be with someone normal. I don’t know why I did that. I love you. I want to be with you,” she whispered.
Ragon looked at her apprehensively, apparently unsure if he should believe her.
“Nothing happened between me and Bridget,” he said finally, “nothing’s happened between us for over a century.”
“I’m sorry. I was being stupid… stupid and jealous. I got it in my head that you two, that maybe you were still together and-”
“-before I met you, before I saved you as a baby, I was different. I was cruel, just like Kiara. It was easy for me to seek momentary lust; it didn’t mean anything, not then and not now. What I have with you, it’s different. But, but that doesn’t mean that you have to feel the same way.”
“But I do,” Ari said, “I do feel the same way. I love you, so much.”
“So, so you don’t have feelings for Chris?”
“No. I was drunk, I was being stupid… I was-”
“-being human,” Ragon finished for her, a knowing smile spreading across his face.
“I can’t reverse time, only stop it, but if I could, if I had that power, I would go back and change what happened the other night. That was the biggest mistake of my life, and… and I am scared that it has cost me the only thing I have in this world that I can’t live without.”
A shadow of a smile traced Ragon’s lips. He looked down and took hold of Ari’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
“Good,” he said, and Ari was pleased to hear that his tone had lightened, “because you are stuck with me.”
Ragon’s hands reached for her but then his eyes hardened.
“God,” he said, suddenly throwing his hands off hers. “The wraith said you were freezing and here I am, an ice cube trying to hug you!”
“I’m not that cold.”
“I can’t even tell,” he growled.
“You know, I am sure that we can think of a way you could warm me up.”
Before Ragon could stop himself, he let a small smile creep across his face. It was this image that Ari held onto, even when she had to fight with him to join her in bed. When finally he was under the covers, Ari reached for his shirt and began trying to pull it up over his head; quickly Ragon stopped her.
“I think it best that we keep as much material between us; I don’t want you to get a chill,” he said flatly.
Ari ignored him, trying once again to remove his shirt.
“Please Ari,” he said, “do you have any idea how hard you’re making this for me?”
“The way I see it, you have two choices,” she said. “You can either allow me to remove your clothes, or I can freeze you and remove them for you. Personally I would prefer the first option, but I am not opposed to using my powers against you. I am the Grandor descendant after all. I’m supposed to use my powers against vampires.”
Ragon laughed and reluctantly helped her to remove his shirt as he said, “Somehow, I don’t think that your ancestors had this in mind.”
Ari smiled seductively up at him, her fingers tracing down to his pants.
“Ari,” Ragon warned, but Ari held her hands up, as if pretending that she would freeze him and he conceited defeat; sighing loudly, he reached over and dragged her towards him so as to kiss her slowly on the lips.
Pressing her advantage, Ari reached down again to Ragon’s pants, pulling the zipper down slowly. She was halfway to kissing down his stomach when a sudden roar in the sky unsettled her. Looking up in surprise, Ari gasped when a loud cackle of thunder, followed by a bright flash of lightening, lit up the sky. There was a small popping noise and then the power in her room failed, throwing the pair into darkness. Ari knew it was a blackout the moment she craned her neck to look out of the window. The entire campus, normally lit by many bright windows, was suddenly p
itched black.
From the darkness she felt Ragon reach across and pull her up to him, leaning in closer and sucking on her ear lobe before tracing his lips gently down her neck.
“Do you have any idea what I would do if anything ever happened to you?” he whispered. “You have no idea how much I wish… how much I regret that Bridget and I ever…”
But Ari held her finger against his lips, silencing Ragon’s words. She didn’t want to hear about Bridget, not ever again.
Ragon’s mouth hovered around the nape of her neck, his eyes raking her jugular vein as he playfully bit at her skin, careful not to break the surface. Ari’s heart screamed in her chest, and she was once again reminded of just how much she had fallen in love with the vampire lying next to her.
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 17
