“Ok,” said Lea, reaching for her phone, “I will contact the circle and Ari, you can go and speak with Chris. We will all meet down at the Omega halls common room. I doubt anyone will be there this late. Ragon, can you check to make sure that it is empty?”
With a final wistful look at Ari, Ragon left. Ari was just about to follow him outside when Lea grabbed her by the arm.
“Be careful around Chris,” she said. “I know that you said that Chris didn’t mean to hurt you, but he is a wraith. That being said, I have never heard of a wraith, or anyone, with that sort of power over vampires.”
Ari nodded and made her way down the corridor, finally pausing in front of Chris’s room. She took in a deep breath and knocked once then waited.
“Perry, if this is your idea of midnight drinking hour then you are-” Chris stopped speaking the moment he had swung his door open.
He looked surprised, even angry, and Ari realised with a pang that he was shirtless. Why did he never seem to have a shirt on whenever she was around him?
“Oh, Ari,” he said, still standing in the door, his face set grimly. “What’s up?”
Ari breathed out a sigh of relief. He was talking to her; that was a good start.
“Chris, I um, I need your help,” she admitted. “I know things haven’t been exactly the best between us but-”
Chris slammed the door in her face and Ari jumped back in surprise. She should have been expecting that. With her head hung low, she turned around slowly and made her way down the corridor; so much for her plan to contact Grandor and find out about her stupid powers. She had barely made it three feet away when Chris’s voice called to her and she spun around, looking hopeful.
“Did you mean what you wrote?” he asked, and Ari saw that now, clutched in his hands, was the letter she had written him.
Ari nodded slowly and Chris opened the note. He did not look down at it as he read it aloud, clearly having committed it to heart.
“Chris, I am sorry for everything that has happened between us. Toying with your emotions was cruel and I never meant to hurt you. I’m leaving with Ragon today. The vampire student council has found out about Gwen and so we are back on the run. I just want you to know that what happened the other night, when you were defending yourself against Ragon, was an accident. I know it wasn’t you who did that, but the part of you that you can’t control- your wraith-half. I know what it feels like to have power inside which you don’t understand… power that can burst from you and hurt the people you care for. I don’t know if I will ever see you again but I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think you’re evil. You are good. In fact, you’re one of the kindest people I have ever met. Please don’t think anything else of yourself. And please don’t let your fear stop you from trying to be the person I think you really, truly, want to be. Ari”
As Chris spoke, Ari felt tears well in her eyes.
“You meant it?” he asked, and Ari nodded again, brushing away the tears that were sliding down her cheek. “Of course I will help you, even if it is before the crack of dawn.”
After that Chris and Ari walked in silence to the Omega halls common room. It was early morning and the room was deserted, all except for Ragon, who glared at Chris as he walked inside but did not speak to him. After that, one by one, each of Lea’s circle members made their way into the room. Some were wearing pyjamas, others were fully dressed, but all of them looked sleepy. When the last girl entered the room, Lea moved over to the door and locked it. She whispered something under her breath and a light shimmering glow encased the door.
“You’re locking us in?” one of the girls asked; she, like most of the other witches, were watching Ragon with slitted eyes.
“Not locking you in,” said Lea, finishing the spell and testing to make sure that the door was secured, “keeping others out. We don’t want anyone walking in on us. What we are going to be doing, it doesn’t exactly fall under the category of acceptable student conduct.”
“Why?” asked the same girl. “What are we doing here?”
“Yea,” said another girl, short and plump; Ari recognised her immediately. It was Belinda, the witch who had helped them pull Malleus Maleficarum from the library. “And why is there a vampire here?”
“He won’t hurt you,” said Lea, ignoring the girl as she took a meaningful look at Chris, “and, while we are getting things out in the open, you should all know that there is a wraith here also.”
There were several sharp intakes of breath and much hissing from all of the witches, as they looked from Ari to Chris, apparently unsure which one was the wraith.
“Thanks a lot,” muttered Chris. “Why are we here then? Or did you just gather us so that we could all name call?”
“No,” said Ari, looking at Chris with hurtful eyes, “we need your help. All of your help.”
“I am not helping a wraith… and I am most defiantly NOT helping a vampire,” said a girl, while several other witches nodded in agreement. “I don’t know why you seem to have strayed down this path Lea, but we will not follow you.”
“This isn’t about me,” said Lea. “And though Ragon is a vampire, he is a good one.”
A few of the witches laughed and Ari stared at them with narrowed eyes.
“And Chris is only part-wraith,” added Lea, while Ragon laughed sardonically behind her. Lea ignored him and went on, “that’s why you weren’t sure there was a wraith here. He isn’t evil… he doesn’t have an evil aura! You can check yourselves, but I would have thought that my word was good enough for you to believe.”
“Then who attacked you if not this wraith,” asked Belinda, looking at Chris with a frown, “the spell we healed you from a few weeks ago… we all know that a wraith placed it on you.”
“It wasn’t Chris,” said Lea, looking anxiously around, “Chris was the one who saved me. He brought me to you so that you could heal me.”
A few of the girls were looking at Chris with frowns on their faces, while others were still shaking their heads and bawling their fists. Finally a young girl, no more than seventeen, walked over to Chris.
“I’ve never heard of good wraith,” she said, reaching a hand out slowly to touch his chest.
“What’s she doing?” asked Chris, looking nervously down at the girl, though he did not move away from her.
“She is feeling your spirit,” said Lea, a small smile widening her lips.
“She’s feeling me?” Chris asked cheekily.
Suddenly the girl dropped her hand and stood back, looking surprised.
“Briana can sense power,” Lea explained. “It’s her gift. All witches can sense magic of some kind, most can usually tell goodness from evil, but Briana has the ability to look into a person’s soul and see what lies there.”
Chris turned, almost anxiously, to look at the young girl.
She smiled at him and said, “He’s not evil. Lea’s telling the truth.”
Every one of the witches turned to Chris in surprise.
“Please,” Lea begged, “we need your help. We need to summon someone from the grave and to do that we need Chris’s help.”
“You want me to use necromancy?” Chris asked incredulously, his dark gaze fixing on Ari. “Seriously, after what happened a few weeks ago?”
“Chris,” said Lea, striding over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder, “didn’t you just hear Briana? There is no question of your goodness. Everyone in this room have both light and dark inside them. Sometimes, when emotion takes over, it’s hard to control the darkness but I know that you are good, and we can’t do this without you. Besides, I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t really important.”
“And the vampire?” asked Belinda, “why is he here?”
“Because-” Lea started to say, but Ragon interrupted.
“-I will not hurt any of you. I do not keep sources,” he said, “and besides, Lea has told us that there are students which have gone missing and I want to help, and I’m not the only vampir
e who wants to help either.”
“Why would vampires want to help potential sources? What do you care if humans go missing?” asked another girl.
“Not all vampires are like that. Ragon isn’t like that,” said Ari.
“You would say that, I suppose he has bitten you and lulled you to think-” the same girl started to say, but Ari moved over to her, so quickly that the girl instantly fell silent.
As she moved over to the girl, Ari tore Ragon’s jumper off, revealing her pale flesh and tank top.
“Can you see any bites?” yelled Ari, spinning around on the spot. “Or shall I take it all off?”
Grimacing, Ari removed the singled shirt too, so that she stood before the group in only her bra and jeans. Her hand was fumbling with the zipper of her pants, when Ragon raced to her side.
“Ari, I think they get the point,” he said, moving over to her and hastening to cover her up.
“Oh I don’t know,” said Chris, smiling sarcastically. “Maybe you should let her finish. You know… just so she can really clear it up for us.”
Chris and Ragon glared at each other. Chris really did have a knack for sarcasm, thought Ari, or maybe just a death wish.
“But we need thirteen to do a séance,” said Briana, “and without Emily we only have twelve, even with the wraith to help us cross to the other side, we can’t-”
“-I’ll be the thirteenth,” said Ari, and all around there was muttering.
“Ok,” said Lea, now moving into the centre of the room.
Ari watched as Lea took several items from her bag. The first was a red and white container with the words ‘Saxa Salt’ written in large bold writing. Twisting the lid open, Lea walked in a large circle, spilling the salt onto the floor so that it formed a line of fine granules.
“We having a barebeque?” Chris asked smugly.
“It’s to bind our bodies so our spirits can cross over,” said Briana.
Ari noticed that Briana had continued to stare at Chris after she spoke. Briana was cute; she was short and slender, with dark brown hair that faded to a light blonde colour at the ends. Her side fringe was thick, coming to rest just above her eyebrows, underneath which two dark brown eyes were thrown into focus. Chris, with his blue beanie, tracksuit pants and tattooed arm, was equally attractive, and seemed to have noticed that Briana had been watching him. He smiled at her and Briana’s eyes immediately dropped to the ground as she blushed furiously.
“Alright,” said Lea, looking at Chris almost sternly, as she indicated for him to stand in the centre. “Chris, can you come here.”
Chris moved to the middle of the circle, just as all the witches stepped to the edge. Ari, realising that she was in fact part of the circle of thirteen, quickly took her place in between Lea and Briana. One by one each of the witches grasped hands. Next to her, Briana’s palm was sweaty, but Ari held onto it, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Wait a minute,” said Belinda, looking at Lea. “You haven’t told us who we are supposed to be summoning.”
“His name is Grandor,” said Lea, “he was a witch. We’re hoping that he might have information about why the students have gone missing.”
None of the circle seemed to react to the word Grandor, and Ari was hopeful that they had no idea the significance of who he was.
“But what is the link?” asked Belinda.
“Link?” said Ari.
“We need something to focus on that links Grandor to this time,” explained Belinda.
“Ari is related to him,” said Lea, just as Ragon coughed loudly behind her, clearly warning her not to mention much more.
“Ok,” said Belinda, and Ari was pleased that again, none of the witches realised the implication.
“Err,” said Chris, “I um, have never done this. What exactly am I supposed to be doing?”
Briana let out a light hearted chuckle, while Lea shook her head.
“We’re going to chant the spell for summoning,” said Lea, still looking at Briana harshly, “being witches, we cannot cross into death to ask an audience, but we know the spell that will allow you to.”
“I’m going to cross into death?” asked Chris, his eyes wide. “That sounds like… fun.”
“Just for a moment,” said Lea, though she couldn’t help smile at Chris’s remark. “Have you ever brought anyone back from the dead?”
Chris looked a little hurt, but finally nodded and said, “Yea, when I was a kid. I accidently brought my dog back after she had been hit by a car.”
Both Briana and Lea looked at Chris sympathetically; then Lea shook herself and said, “Well, it should be just like that. Wraith magic can allow you to bring back the soul of a departed spirit and attach it into its body with the offering of the blood of someone who loved them. Because we don’t have Grandor’s body, you’re not going to need the blood sacrifice; we just want to talk to him. He should appear in spirit form, nothing else.”
“So what,” asked Chris, “I’m just supposed to walk around in death shouting out Grandor’s name and hope he hears? Then the two of us will skip merrily back into life and we can all have a nice cosy chat? Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? That makes it so more obvious.”
Lea shook her head, laughing softly as she said, “I don’t know how necromancy works. But I’m sure,” she added, avoiding Chris’s eye, “that you will know exactly what to do when you get there. Necromancy is after all, in your blood.”
Chris sighed and said, “Alright then, now that I have all the instructions, we might as well get on with it.”
Next to Ari, Lea started to chant. It was a soft and deep sound, almost like slow music. She could just make out phrases that sounded to be in Latin or Greek, though she wasn’t sure. All around her the chanting was echoed off the lips of the other witches. Ari thought of trying to mimic them but didn’t know the words. She was just about to ask the circle to stop and tell her what she was supposed to be saying, when she felt a great rush of electricity course from Lea, go through her, then shoot out through her hand towards Briana. The energy left a strange tingling sensation in Ari’s fingers and when she looked up to see if anyone else had noticed the change, she saw with amazement that a glowing silvery light was emanating from the circle’s hands. The light shone brighter and brighter, pushing out from their fingertips and slowly spreading to form an enormous globe encasing them.
“Grandor,” Lea said, and Ari suddenly felt many eyes on her; looking around she saw that every one of the witches were staring fixated at her.
A second later, Chris dropped to his knees. Ari made to rush forwards but Lea kept hold of her hand, locking her in place. Looking up, Ari realised that none of witches were looking at her anymore. They all had their eyes closed, their heads bent back as they faced the ceiling.
A sudden rush of wind blew Ari’s hair, flinging it wildly around her face so that is shot in all directions. When the gale finally settled, an odd silence filled the room. No one else in the circle moved. Their bodies remained motionless, their heads bent back, and Ari thought that perhaps she had stopped time. She looked at Lea, and felt an icy coldness emanating from the hand that was stiffly clasping hers.
Then Chris stood. His eyes were black, completely devoid of colour, as if they had become giant gaping pools that delved deep inside him. Ari stared at him in horror. She had seen this look in Chris when he had attacked Ragon, and though she wanted desperately to believe that Chris was good and would not attack her, there was a horrible lurch in her stomach as she feared the worse. Slowly Chris walked towards her, his hands outstretched. Two frosty fingertips touched her face, gently tracing a line down from the centre of her forehead to her chin. She didn’t know what to do and before she could ask, Chris had pulled her away from the circle. Ari hadn’t felt Lea’s hand release hers, and when she looked back, her heart skipped a beat. There she was, still standing in between Lea and Briana, their hands still grasping hers and forming part of the circle of light which encapsul
ated the group.
What the hell was going on? How were there two of her? Looking down, Ari saw that her body had become fluid and transparent, as if she were a ghost. Was this her spirit? Had her body remain behind as part of the circle?
“What’s happening?” asked Ari, still staring at her mirror image and the motionless circle of witches around her.
Chris did not reply but continued to walk her back to the centre of the circle, now clutching Ari’s hand forcefully, his frosty fingertips intertwined in hers tightly, as if he were afraid she might float away.
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 24
