“That’s not true. Bridget went there to kill Ari not Ragon,” cried Gwen.
“How do you know this?” asked James.
“She spoke to a friend of hers earlier that day and then told me what she was going to do,” Gwen admitted.
“Then why did she not kill his source?” asked James, turning to stare incredulously at Ari. “This girl is mortal and Bridget was three hundred years old. Surely a vampire of Bridget’s age would have no problems in killing a mere human?”
Ari stared back at James in disbelief. He knew what she was capable of. He had been there when the Ancients had sentenced her and Ragon to death. Why was he making out that Ari was just a regular girl?
“I don’t know,” Gwen admitted, turning to point accusatorily at Ari, “there is something weird about her. She can do things…” she added, her voice trailing off as she stared at the audience, who were now looking back at her sceptically. “She did something strange in the forest when we were bringing her here.”
“Hmm,” said James, raising an eyebrow. “Can you produce this friend whom Bridget allegedly spoke to?”
Slowly Gwen shook her head and said, “I don’t know who it was; I never saw her. Bridget just told me that it was an old friend.”
“Well, as there is no evidence that Mr Young was not acting in self-defence, I have no other choice but to dismiss the charges against him,” James said, standing suddenly and moving over to Ragon. “Bridget is lucky that Ragon dispatched her, otherwise she would have to answer to the Final Death Laws for attacking him.”
“He killed my best friend,” Gwen screamed, her face becoming less and less beautiful as her silver hair whipped violently across her face.
“There is no proof of that,” James replied softly.
Without warning Gwen let out a manic scream and jumped onto the stage, blurring towards Ragon with her fangs beared. Before she could reach Ragon, Ari threw up her hands, instantly stopping time.
“Shit,” Ari said to herself, jumping from her seat and racing between Ragon and Gwen, who was frozen mid-leap.
Ari looked around desperately; everyone in the room had frozen. With her back pushed against Ragon’s chair and her feet dug into the carpet, she tried with all her might to push Ragon out of the way, but his chair would not budge. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye there was movement, and then someone spoke, making Ari stop dead in her tracks.
“Let me help you,” James said, and Ari’s mouth fell open, turning to stare in horror at the man who she thought, like the rest of the people in the room, was frozen.
“But how...” Ari began to say, but before she could ask any more, she winced as her hand burnt; looking down instinctively, Ari saw that a symbol had appeared on her palm, at first it was red hot, as if it had been branded there, but quickly it faded into a black image.
She stared in disbelief at the familiar symbol; it was a gothic sun, inside which a few stars were dotted and an intricate circle wove. She had seen this symbol before, months ago, when she had been at Lea’s grandmothers house. But what did this mean? Why had it appeared now?
“Shall we,” said James, beginning to pull Ragon’s chair.
“How did you unfreeze?” she asked, looking back up at him and thinking perhaps that she has somehow electively unfrozen him, when she had been thinking of the coven. “Are you a waere?” she added, before realising that he couldn’t be; true her power to free didn’t work on waeres but only if they were in their animal form.
James looked at her curiously but did not answer. Instead he pulled hard on Ragon’s chair while Ari pushed. There was a thick trail of sweat on Ari’s brow and when she looked across at James, she saw that like her, he too was perspiring. As the pair dragged the chair across the room, Ari couldn’t help but wonder why he was helping her; she was just about to ask him this when time restarted.
Suddenly there was an ear splitting crack and Gwen ran straight into the concrete wall, right behind where Ragon had been chained to the chair a moment ago. Gwen swayed on the spot and then crumpled to the floor. Without sympathy, James stared down at the girl, clicked his fingers once, and two vampires from the crowd jumped onto the stage. Ari saw that it was the same two men who had restrained Ragon earlier. The pair frowned down at Gwen and began dragging her limp body out of the room. Whistling tunelessly, James then moved over to Ragon and produced a small silver key, which he used to unlock the chains binding him.
April, along with the rest of the coven and indeed the majority of the vampires in the room, were staring up at James in disbelief. Several had their mouth open and one vampire in the front row was glancing back and forth from where Gwen was being carried away and then back up to James, clearly shocked by the proceedings.
“That will be all,” said James, indicating with a wave of his hand that the audience was dismissed. “Oh, and before I forget, Gwen has arranged a hockey tournament for those vampires who wish to compete. She will undoubtedly give you all the rest of the details, when she is err, less indisposed.”
There was a long silence and then several chairs scraped across the carpet all at once, and one by one the vampires left. Only the coven members, Ari and James Frater remained. James had placed the small key back underneath his jacket and moved over to Ari. Instantly Ragon stood, blurring to stand defensively in front of her. James, who did not seem perturbed by this in the slightest, smiled, just as Ragon growled and beared his fangs. Ragon was too wounded to maintain his defensive stance however, soon dropping to his knees.
“Well, I shall see you all around. These hockey games should be fun. There will be a few extra students to partake in them, some err, exchange students. We might even have a good competition,” said James, looking down at Ragon indifferently before exiting the room also.
Ari blinked after, absolutely at a loss of what to make of the new Vice Chancellor.
Several hours after the arraignment, Ari and the coven had met in Riley’s room on the lower level of Omega Halls, so as to discuss everything which had happened. Ragon hadn’t spoken since the arraignment. Following his dismissal he had gone to the vampire library and returned with several bags of blood. Ari recognised the three small bags immediately as the same snack she had seen at the vending machine all those months ago, when she had broken into the vampire library with Ryder. There were two crumpled bags next to him and after a long moment, at which time there was much squelching from Ragon, the third bag joined the rest. The look on Ragon’s face was not one of satisfaction, more of frustration. It was clear that this preserved food source was not as good as the real deal. Ari equated it to having a bag of potato chips when you really wanted hot fries, though she knew this analogy wasn’t quite right.
“I know that you took a beating today but do you need to litter my room with these,” said Riley, reaching for the three empty blood bags and throwing them into a bin.
“I did not take a beating,” Ragon said, undignified.
Instinctively Ari looked at Ragon’s neck. There was no longer any indication of the trauma the EDTA rope had caused, rather the skin around it was just as perfect as the rest of him. Clearly the blood had done wonders to heal him.
“Oh I am sorry; did you hit Gwen and her band of bamboos with your head?” Clyde asked, just as Thomas let out a laugh.
There was the smallest hint of a growl from Ragon but he did not argue any further.
“So, this James Frater is a bit of a conundrum, hey,” said Ryder.
“I don’t know what he is but he sure as hell is no vampire,” Ari said. “And, he didn’t freeze.”
“What?” Thomas asked. “What do you mean?”
“When Gwen charged at Ragon, I stopped time so I could move him out of the way, but I couldn’t do it by myself. I thought that Gwen was going to kill him and then James Frater… he, he helped me, while you were all frozen.”
“But how?” asked Ryder. “Do you think you selectively unfroze him or do you think he is immune to your powers?”
“Maybe it means your powers are growing?” Sandra suggested.
“I don’t know,” said Ari. “He didn’t seem surprised by what I could do.”
“But you said he was with the Ancients, that must mean that he knows you aren’t a normal girl,” Ryder countered.
“What I don’t get,” said Thomas, “is why, if he knew what you are capable of, did he not sentence Ragon and you to death? And why he helped Ragon when Gwen was about to kill him? I thought that the Ancients wanted you both dead.”
Slowly Ari nodded her head. James had become a complete mystery to her. How had he unfrozen? Why had he helped them? Why had he lied and said that he didn’t know what Ari could do?
“And why would the Ancients send someone who isn’t a vampire to run the school?” asked Thomas, jumping to his feet and pacing around the room.
“I wish I knew more about what it means to be a stupid Grandor descendant,” said Ari, more to herself than anyone else. “If I could control my powers then the Ancients wouldn’t be able to threaten us anymore.”
“Yea,” said Ryder, smiling, “you could bust out a sun storm every time a vampire annoyed you.”
“Maybe you should speak with Lea’s grandmother again?” suggested Thomas. “It was her who told you that you were a Grandor Descendant, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” said Ari, recalling when she had met with Chiara. “I mean, yea, she was the one who told me about my destiny, but she didn’t seem like she was all there. She kept speaking in riddles. But she did have a book in her collection which mentioned the Grandor legend,” Ari added, remembering the strange book entitled ‘known immortals.’ “There might be more information about my ancestors in it. I didn’t really get much time to peruse it. There were more important things going on at the time.”
“Maybe,” said Riley, chewing on her bottom lip as she glanced nervously around the room, “maybe we should ask Natalie if she knows why James didn’t freeze?”
Blank faces stared back at Riley, until Ari spoke.
“What?” she said. “I don’t understand. Why would Natalie know anything?”
“Well, your powers don’t work on waeres when they are in animal form, right?” said Riley, just as Ari nodded, “But, when you tried to freeze me while I was in my human form, you couldn’t,” again Ari nodded, though this time a little slower. “And, Natalie was able to tell us things about my pregnancy, like how the father of the baby must not be a waere, because I can’t shift… so maybe she knows a reason why you can’t freeze me now, even while I am in my human form?”
Ari stared blankly at Riley; that made no sense at all. How could a waere girl know anything at all about her Grandor magic?
“Are you serious?” asked Clyde, looking at Riley as if she were insane and had just broken out of an asylum. “There is a new Vice Chancellor on campus, and you want to run around chasing down the one thing we know they are after, even though you just happen to be one yourself?”
“I just thought,” Riley admitted, “that if we found Natalie, she might be able to help, and maybe,” she added, her cheeks flushing, “maybe she would be able to give us some advice on this baby. She seemed to know so much; maybe I am not the first waere to have a baby with a vampire?”
Sandra smiled knowingly at Riley and said, “Oh Riley honey, I know you are scared, but we won’t let anything happen to you, or the baby. I’m sure you miss being able to shift and being with other waeres, but it’s just too dangerous right now for you to be around them. Not with the vampires on campus and everyone on high alert for waeres.”
“And, from what James was saying about that stupid hockey match, there might be more vampires coming to the campus,” Thomas added.
“It was strange the way he spoke about that. Wasn’t it?” said Ryder. “One minute he held Ari’s and Ragon’s life in his hands, and the next, he was announcing that Gwen had organised some stupid sports event.”
“A hockey tournament?” said Sandra, “Why would vampires travel here for a hockey game?”
“It was all very strange,” said Ragon, nodding in agreement.
Ari, who had stopped thinking about James, was once again looking at Riley. Ari should have realised why Riley really wanted to find Natalie. It had nothing to with why James had not frozen; she wanted to know more about her miraculous pregnancy.
Clyde moved over to Riley and kissed her on the cheek.
He too seemed to be thinking about this, because he said, “We’ll get through this together.”
“So, does this mean that we are staying here?” asked Riley, looking up at Clyde as she took the plastic bag out of her rubbish bin and tied a knot into it, throwing Ragon’s left over blood bags away.
“You can’t leave,” said Sandra. “We’re safer together, besides, Riley can’t shift into an animal. What chance is there of anyone finding out that she is a waere?”
“Sandra’s right,” Thomas said, “besides, if you leave now it will look suspicious.”
“I know,” said Sandra, racing over to Riley, “I will throw you a baby shower.”
“Oh… a baby shower; how adorable,” purred Ryder, clapping his hands together in excitement.
At the exact same time, Clyde growled, but before he could respond, Riley spoke again, “I think your right; we have to stay here. Besides, I don’t think that I am supposed to fly while being pregnant.”
Ari smiled at Riley, wondering if, like all the other things she had come to learn about being pregnant, she had read this on the internet.
“No,” said Clyde, glaring at Sandra. “We’re not leaving, but no baby shower! We don’t need to draw any unwanted attention to the fact that waeres not only exist, but there is one living in Omega halls and she happens to be pregnant with a vampire’s child.”
Riley looked down at her stomach and Sandra nodded obediently, though there was a mischievous look in her eyes that told Ari the idea of throwing Riley a baby shower, was most definitely not over with.
Chapter 11- Love me Not
The next morning uncharacteristically warm rays shone through Ari’s bedroom window and blanketed her face, waking her instantly. She had felt the gentle heat of the sunshine and smiled, realising that not only had the rain stopped but the sun was shining in its place. It took her a moment to realise why the sunlight splashing across her face had left her heart racing, then she jumped to her feet, her eyes scanning the room for Ragon.
Looking down, Ari saw that there was a note for her on the dressing room table:
‘Morning my love, will be staying inside today. Come see me if you get bored. Ragon’
It was the first day in months since Ragon had been forced to remaining indoors, hiding inside Cruor halls, where the UV protective glass kept him safe from the sun. Ordinarily the weather on the Isle of Man was conducive to vampires walking around during the day, but not on days like today. Today there was only one thing to do, and Ari moved to her wardrobe, reaching to the very back as she pulled out a long maxi dress. She smiled at the peachy fabric, letting the silk run through her fingers before throwing it on. She hadn’t worn a dress like this since… since before she had moved to England.
Matching her outfit with a white jacket and cute ballet shoes, Ari grabbed her bag of books and raced from her room, eager to get to the cafeteria before her first class.
“You look radiant,” said Lea, waving for Ari to join her at a table.
Ari smiled and moved to sit beside Lea, the loose fabric of her dress flowing out as she glided through the mess hall. As she took the first bite of her toast, Ari noticed that she was by no means the only one to be donning summer attire. There were many girls dressed in singlet shirts so as to show off their pale shoulders, while a few had even been adventurous enough to wea
r shorts.
“You got much on today?” asked Ari. “We should lie in the sun after class!”
“Can’t, the circle wants to meet later. Apparently another student has gone missing.”
“What!” Ari said, coughing as she choked on a wedge of bread.
“Yea, I told my gran about it and she’s really worried.”
“Shit,” Ari said, “is there anything I can do?”
Lea looked across the table sceptically, then her eyes became dull and unfocused, finally she looked up at Ari and said, “Actually, you have premonitions of the future, right?”
“Yea, but I have no control over when they come or what they are about. They just pop into my head now and then.”
“What if,” said Lea, whispering low as she leaned over her bowl of cereal, so as to provoke a private conversation, “what if I were able to put a spell on you that would open your mind up to clairvoyant vibrations?”
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 20
