Chapter 21- Blood Bond
Trapped in the darkness, Ari was certain she was dead. For a long while the blackness did not regress, and she remained locked in her mind, having just been forced to watch the events that had led to the murder of her parents and the realisation that her brother was not dead.
Ari,” she heard someone yell, but she was too far away to answer, still trapped in unconsciousness.
Then all of a sudden there was pain, and she felt her heart begin to beat inside her chest, bringing with it wave after wave of unrelenting agony and uncomfortable warmth. Her throat burned and for a while she remained like this, unable to move or scream as she wanted to, but stuck in an unconscious stupor of unbearable agony.
“Ari,” the voice said again, and this time Ari twitched.
With much difficulty, Ari forced her eyes to open. Everything was blurry and out of focus, and for a while she stared dumbly around, unable to see anything at all.
“Ari, come back to me,” the voice next to her said, and she realised that it was Ragon who spoke.
“Ragon,” Ari mumbled, but her voice was incoherent and her throat burned like a volcano, spreading larva through her body and leaving her feeling as though she was on fire.
When finally the room was pulled into focus, Ari blinked in confusion. The rest of the coven was there and they were fighting against the Ancients. The vampires moved so fast that Ari could barely keep her eyes on them. One by one the members of the coven fell, only to hurriedly drag themselves back up, ready to fight again. And still there was the uncomfortable feeling of heat inside her, and it was uncontrollable, ready to break free at the slightest chance. In the corner of her eye she saw James. He had fallen to his knees, her small silver charm bracelet clutched in his hands. From the way he staggered to his feet, she wondered whether or not he had just had the same vision of their past, and she stared at him hopefully, desperately, willing him to believe her.
“She was telling the truth,” James said quietly, taking a few steps away from the Ancients.
Lace was fighting with Ryder and Clyde and looked up abruptly, staring in horror at James. Then she smiled, a mirthless wicked smile, and charged at Ryder, taking him by the neck and slamming his body against the floor. Before Clyde could stop her, Lace had brought her hand heavily down to Ryder’s chest, smashing it hard; so hard the floor beneath cracked under the pressure.
“You’re either with us, or you’re with them… in death,” said Lace, looking down at Ryder’s body.
Ari screamed. Fighting past the pain of her swollen throat, she felt her eyes began to stream as they rested on Ryder. There was still an odd look of triumph on his face, but his eyes were no longer blue and vivid but cold and still… she knew, without really knowing how she knew, that he was dead. Ari looked away, forcing herself not to see the lifeless expression on her friend’s face. Ryder was gone, his life stolen by the vampires who had tried to take everything from her. And with this thought came heat, unbearable and yet comforting.
“Run,” she screamed, her eyes fixed on Ragon in desperation, as her green and blue eyes closed momentarily, desperate to block out her deadly powers, fearful that she would hurt the people she loved.
But there was no time, already she had begun to glow and then a moment later, burst into sunshine, as white hot light poured from her. All around there were screams of agony, and she watched in horror as both the Ancients and the coven fell to the ground, while Chris, Lea and Riley stood in shock, unaffected by the sun’s glow.
No she thought, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.
And then James was next to her, his hand reaching for hers, as he concentrated on the coven. She felt the light burning inside her, just as strong as always, and yet there were shadows being cast from James, each falling over the different coven members, shielding them from her powers. The tears that spilled from her eyes were not enough to hide the relieved faces of Clyde, Tomas, Sandra and Ragon, and soon it was only the ancients who were screaming, as one by one they began to turn black.
“Traitor,” screamed Lace, her furious eyes set on James as she charged at him.
The moment her teeth sunk through James flesh, the small smile that had been on his face faded, just as his powers began to wane. But it was too late; already Ari’s powers had done their work. Next to James, Lace fell down, defeated by the sun. She was no longer flesh but stone, and she crumpled against the floor, like carbon under pressure. Joseph made to move towards his sister, his arms outstretched as though to reach for her, but his skin was peeling away, turning to ash as he crumpled into dust.
“NO!” Virgil screamed, and like his fallen brother and sister, he too began to disintegrate, until there was nothing left of him at all.
For a moment James looked to be unaffected, his hand which had held Ari’s moved to grasp at his neck, but then he fell to his knees, sending piles of ash, the remnants of Virgil, Joseph and Lace, up into the air. It was only when Ari looked down, that she realised a large puddle of blood was beginning to pool around James.
In an instant Ari dropped to her knees. Her hand groped desperately for James wrists and neck, hoping, willing there to be a pulse, but there was not. She pulled her trembling fingers away. They were smeared with bright red blood and she stared at them in disbelief.
“NO!” she cried, her head falling against James still chest as fresh tears spilled onto his clothes. “Jamie, Jamie, JAMIE!” Ari cried again and again.
She felt Ragon try to pull her away, but she clung onto her brother’s clothes tightly. How could she lose him now, after a life time of believing he was dead?
“Jamie?” Ragon asked, and then his eyes lit up, realising who James frater really was.
“He’s her brother?” asked Sandra, as she and the rest of the coven gathered around the pair.
“But then he was a Grandor Descendant too?” Lea asked in confusion, an awe-like glow now filling her eyes.
“He might turn,” Thomas said hopefully, but Ari shook her head.
“Vampire toxin doesn’t work on us the same way it works on mortals,” she said sadly. “Wait… Chris? You can fix him. You can bring him back.”
Chris, who had moved to where his father’s body lay, suddenly looked up. Slowly he shook his head.
“You have to. I know you can,” screamed Ari. “And Ryder… you can save Ryder too.”
“Ari, I can’t,” he said, his voice low and sad.
“What… what do you mean you can’t? Of course you can. You are a wraith!” she yelled.
“I don’t, I don’t know how to,” Chris stammered, still shaking his head. “If I did, I, I would bring back my father but, but I don’t know how.”
Ari watched as a few salty tears dislodged from Chris’s eyes and fell onto the cloak of his father. She knew he was telling the truth but didn’t want to believe him.
“Clyde,” Riley screamed, and Ari’s terrified face searched the rubble and ash for him also, fearful that he too had fallen at the Ancients hands.
“Riley!” Clyde yelled, and Ari looked up hopeful until she saw the look of horror on Clyde’s face.
Quickly Ari wheeled around. Riley had fallen to the ground, her hand pressed hard against her stomach, as she breathed quickly and then screamed again.
“The baby,” said Riley, her teeth clenched, “it’s coming… ahhh…. Now!”
Clyde raced to Riley’s side. He made to lift her but the effort of just trying to pick her up was too much for him, and he fell to the ground with her in his arms. Sandra had moved to their side also, gently whispering calming words to Riley, while Ragon and Thomas looked down in fear. Ari, unable to think of what else to do, grabbed Lea and the pair kneeled in front of Riley, taking on the role of delivery nurses.
“Just breathe,” said Ari, while next to her Lea whispered words of magic, which caused warm glowing lights to flourish and settle on Riley’s stomach.
These seemed to soothe Riley and Ari wondered if they we
re perhaps taking away the pain, maybe even acting like an epidural. Then Riley’s face contorted in pain, her hair suddenly dampened as sweat clung to her brow, and she screamed again and started pushing.
Soon a new scream filled the room, followed shortly by crying, just as the glowing pearls of light left Riley’s stomach and traced their way to Riley’s baby. Ari held her breath as she delivered the first half-vampire, half-waere to the world in over a thousand years. Carefully she wrapped the crying baby in her coat. As she did so, Ari couldn’t help but glance over at Ryder, his still body contrasting drastically to the tiny bundle of joy she was now holding.
“It’s a girl,” said Ari.
Clyde was speechless. His mouth was open and his eyes were locked on the baby girl that Ari held.
“Is she alright?” asked Riley, when Ari had placed the tiny child into her arms.
Riley couldn’t seem to bring herself to look at the little bundle in her arms. There was sweat all over her face, meshed with tears, and she was shaking all over.
“She’s fine,” said Lea, leaning down to look at the miracle child, “she’s healthy and fine.”
When Riley finally looked down at her daughter, her face broke into a smile. One tiny hand reached to touch Riley on the face and instinctively Riley reached down to kiss the little fingertips.
“Rya,” Clyde said slowly, his hand reaching out longingly as he stroked the little girl’s cheek adoringly. “We’ll call her Rya, after her uncle… Ryder.”
“Rya,” said Riley, nodding her head as she cradled the baby in her arms.
Despite the joy, Ari couldn’t help but feel isolated with sadness. Patrick wasn’t here to mourn Ryder, and Rya’s birth seemed to steal away from the gravity of his passing. Without really thinking, Ari felt herself moving away from the smiling faces, and settling over to where James and Ryder lay. She placed herself so that she sat between the two, and was oddly comforted by the absence of life, alone with her grief.
It was hard for her to look at either of their faces. They weren’t right, as if death had stolen something from them. She reached for Ryder first, placing her trembling hands over his eyelids as she closed them slowly. It was horrible staring at his lifeless blue eyes. They were the exact same colour as hers, and the reason why so many people had thought that they really were brother and sister when she had been fostered by his family, all those years ago. But she would never again see those bright eyes staring at her adoringly. She would never hear him call her muffin, or get to talk to him about boys. Without meaning to, large sobs escaped her, and she tried not to look over at the coven, afraid that they would hear her and try to comfort her.
But there could be no comfort for her loss. Ryder was the first person who she had loved, the first person to care for her. And he had lost his life being dragged into her crazy world. A sudden pang of guilt bit down on her; Ryder would still be alive if they hadn’t of reunited. He would have been better off without her. With this dreadful thought, she brushed his brown hair away from his face, placing it to the side as he normally wore it in life.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, leaning forwards and resting her lips on his forehead.
Forcing herself to release Ryder’s body, she looked at James. As she studied his features, she couldn’t believe that it had taken her this long to realise he was her brother. Both had the same long slender nose and high cheek bones, and though James’s hair was a lighter shade of brown, it was thick and luscious, just like Ari’s. In life his eyes had been green, but now one of them had turned blue. He had inherited their father’s green eyes, while Ari had inherited her mother’s blue ones. And yet both their eyes changed colour with their emotion, so that it was almost as if a small part of their parents were alive within each of them.
“I wish…” Ari began to say, but quickly stopped herself. It was too hard for her to list the wishes that she had, but she had to try. “I wish we had more time,” she said, urging herself on, desperate to say all the things she had wanted. “I wish, I wish there was no such thing as the stupid Grandor legend. I wish we were just a normal brother and sister, and had parents, and…”
But her voice trailed off as her sobs became too loud to hide. Slowly she placed her fingertips atop James’s eyelids, closing them gently just as she had for Ryder. Then she leant down and rested her head against her brothers still chest, closing her eyes as she pictured what it might have been like growing up with him and her parents.
Before long she felt someone reach up and touch her shoulder. The hand was cold and she knew instantly that it belonged to a vampire. She didn’t want to look or speak to anyone. She longed to be left alone with Ryder and James… her brothers. Her eyes were still closed when she heard someone whisper something.
“Ariana,” the voice said, and Ari opened her eyes.
Her eyes widened and she looked down at James’s still chest. His eyes were no longer closed but staring up at her and his hand was rested on her shoulder, icy cold… just like a vampires.
“But, but,” Ari muttered, unable to gather her thoughts. “I thought you were dead?”
As Ari looked at her brother, she realised that he had changed. No longer was there the pink flush to his cheeks that had been there in life, but rather a ghostly pallor had settled across him and Ari knew he was no longer a man; he was a vampire.
“You’re a vampire. But I thought that vampire toxin didn’t work on us? I thought… I thought I lost you,” she said, unable to stop the new wave of sobs which spilled from her. “I thought I lost you again.”
Ragon, who had left the others to stand near Ari, had looked down at James with obvious happiness as he said, “I guess vampire toxin does work differently on Grandor Descendants.” Both James and Ari looked up at him in confusion and he explained, “It normally takes hours for the transformation to occur, not minutes. It’s almost as if you were meant to become immortal.”
James nodded slowly, and as he did so his eyes fell on Ryder.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I never knew… I never even guessed.”
“It’s ok James,” Ari said, helping him to sit up.
She was too revealed, too astounded to think of blaming him for Ryder’s death. It had been the Ancients who had killed Ryder. It had been James who had saved them.
“Don’t call me that,” he said gruffly, his eyes hardening.
“Jamie then,” Ari said, a small smile spreading across her face, instantly mirrored by her brother.
Chapter 22- Fallen Friend
Three days had passed since the Ancients attack and life for the coven had changed forever.
All the vampires who had been under the control of the Ancients and their blood candy had been killed; their bodies either bloodless at Chris’s hands or else burnt beyond recognition by Ari. Only the piles of ash in the Farm were relic of the battle that had occurred there. The battle which had claimed so many lives… both foe and friend.
Lea had seen to it that the missing student enrolled in the BC programme had awoken. Most of them were transferred to the Pasteur Hospital to recover. When they woke from their coma, they were groggy but not injured, and fortunately without memory of what had happened to them since their capture.
At Ari’s request, Ragon had helped Jamie settle into vampire life, teaching him how to hunt and control his thirst around mortals. For a fledgling his ability to control himself around humans was remarkable. Though he desired blood, the thirst did not control him, and he adapted to vampirism almost overnight.
Riley and Clyde had gone back to Ragon’s estate, wanting a quiet life as they adjusted to parenthood. They still had no idea whether Rya would be a vampire, waere or human. On the outside she looked entirely mortal, but there was an unnatural presence and beauty about her that no human child should have at her age. And unlike other babies, two small canines had erupted from her top mouth, though thankfully she drank milk and not blood. Neither had seen any indication of Rya shifting into an animal yet,
though Riley had said her waere magic did not take hold until adolescence. Sandra and Thomas had left with them. Ari thought that the birth of the first immortal child had brought out a maternal instinct in Sandra which had been neglected for the past few hundred years.
This had left Ari to plan Ryder’s funeral. Ragon had tried valiantly to locate Patrick, and Ari had even asked Lea to use her magic, but as Lea had feared, her scribing spell did not work on vampires, and so the coven had hoped that the news of the Ancient’s demise would reach Patrick, wherever he was, so that he might too be able to attend the funeral of his fledgling.
The night before the funeral Ari, Ragon, Chris, Lea and Jamie had travelled back to Ragon’s home in mainland England. Ragon had offered to lay Ryder to rest at the cemetery located in the grounds on his family estate. Ragon’s entire family, except his mother, whose ashes he had taken with him to Australia, had been buried at the Young family cemetery. It wasn’t a small cemetery, as might have been expected, but grand, with large mausoleums for each deceased family member and intricately carved stone angels that hung along the gates to the graveyard, as if keeping watch over the souls beneath their hollow ground.
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 36
