Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (34 page)

Instead of answering, Ari moved her hands down to his belt buckle and pulled. She was just about to throw the belt to the floor, when Ragon took it in his hands, just as a wide smile extended his face. Before she could reach for the zipper of his pants, he had grabbed her and thrown her onto the bed. Ari let out a small gasp, watching in shock as Ragon strapped her hands to the post of the bed, securing them with his belt, so that they were held up behind her head.

“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to keep her voice casual.

Ragon did not reply but traced his fingers down her stomach, until they began to circle her thighs and she moaned. A knowing smile spread across Ari’s face, but she tried to remain indifferent as Ragon continued to tease her, gently tracing his fingers across her body.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked, looking at Ari with lustful eyes.

Ari blushed then immediately looked away, while Ragon let out a satisfied laugh before resuming his play. As the seconds stretched into minutes, Ragon’s hands grew more and more hungry, reaching closer towards her sweet spot. Small beads of sweat had begun to dot her face but her bound hands prevented her from brushing them away.

“I can hear how fast your heart is beating,” he said.

“Do you want me to beg?” she asked, her chest beginning to rise and fall quickly.

“That’s exactly what I want.”

Ari knew she wouldn’t be able to resist much longer; there was so much pent up tension inside her. She was just about to give in when a mischievous smile spread across her face, and she suddenly tensed as she attempted to stop time. It was only when Ragon’s hands froze and his eyes became glassy, that she realised she had succeed in stopping time. She tried struggling against his leather belt, desperately hoping to wrench her hands from their binds, but he had tied them too well. When finally her freeze wore off, she knew from the confused look on Ragon’s face that he had suspected what she had done.

“Did you just freeze me?” he asked, an amused expression plastered on his face.

Ari nodded sheepishly, just as Ragon recommenced his assault on her body, driving her senses into over load. Over and over he continued to torment her like this, until Ari was so desperate for him that she finally begged.

“Oh God… please stop; I’ll do anything.”

“Tell me; what do you want me to do?” Ragon asked again.

“Please!”

“Then the binds stay,” he said, not waiting for an answer as he kissed her hungrily on the lips and positioned himself so that he was on top of her.

The moment his cold body pressed against hers, Ari thrust her hips up to meet him; she was so desperate for him to be inside her that when he did finally enter her, she instantly began rocking backwards and forth. Though Ari’s hands were bound, Ragon had reached up to them and held them in place, clearly enjoying the feeling of dominating her.

Sudden loud moans escaped Ari’s mouth and Ragon smiled, reaching a hand to her mouth as he whispered, “Be quiet my love or someone will hear us.”

As Ragon’s motions became faster and faster, Ari bit down on his hand. A sudden breaking noise signified Ragon reaching for his belt and tearing the leather straps away, so that Ari’s hands were free. A second later and he pressed hard into her, before letting out a long low moan. The power of her orgasm left Ari speechless.

Chapter 21- Were Patrol

Ari spent the rest of the weekend lying in bed with Ragon. She knew that she should feel guilty about not putting in as much effort as she could for her upcoming exam, but she couldn’t help herself. It felt like years since she and Ragon had gotten to spend some quality alone time together; unless of course you counted their week away in Latvia. Ari shook her head; that was probably the furthest thing from a holiday she could think of.

Come Monday morning and Ari was starting to feel serious underprepared for her re-sit. Moving from her bed to her desk, she withdrew some un-touched notes and began writing up palm cards, hopeful that she would at least be able to get some study before her 3pm lecture; the first one of the new term.

It was half an hour later when a small noise from the bed distracted her; she turned around and saw that Ragon had awoken and was peering out the window.

“Another beautiful day in England,” he said, indicating the overcast and rainy weather with a wide smile on his face.

“You know it was snowing the other day,” said Ari. “I’d never seen the snow before.”

“Did you like it?”

Ari nodded, smiling, and soon everything that she had studied for the morning swept from her mind and she jumped onto the bed, pulling Ragon towards her. She was just planting a kiss on his chin when a distracting vibrating noise had them both searching for their phones.

“Great,” Ragon said, reading a message from his phone. “I have to go.”

“What. Why?”

“The new Vice Chancellor has called a meeting,” he explained, reaching for his jacket.

“Ok, well do I have time for a shower? I am supposed to be in class at 9, but-”

“-it’s not that kind of meeting,” he said hurried, smiling at her and moving to kiss her once again. “Vampires only I’m afraid my love; you fortunately are not one of the immortal damned.”

“But… but why?”

“Because you haven’t been dying and drunk a vampires blood,” he laughed.

Ari stared at him; that wasn’t entirely true, not that Ragon knew that. At the end of last year she had been dying and Clyde had given her his blood. She dared to wonder how angry Ragon would be if he found out. Seeing the perturbed look on Ari’s face, Ragon reached for her.

“I’ll find out what this is all about soon and let you know. I am sure it’s nothing too exciting. Probably some students running amuck on campus; or maybe the new Vice Chancellor wants to introduce himself to everyone,” he said, now moving over to the door and opening it. “Also, please don’t let any wraiths inside,” he added, pressing the lock on her door.

Ari rolled her eyes but did not argue with him. She wasn’t going to stop being friends with Chris just because Ragon said so, but then again, they had just made up and she wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight so soon after.

For the next few hours Ari managed to get in more study than she had in a long time. She had several packets of potato chips opened on her desk, along with a can of diet coke and one or two remaining yellow snakes. She was just beginning to feel confident about her upcoming exam, when there was a knock at the door.

Turning a little reluctantly from her studies, Ari swung around and said, “Come in,” before hearing the door clutter but not open. Remembering that Ragon had locked it she got to her feet and said, “Hang on a minute.”

When Ari pushed the door open she was surprised to see Cambridge. He was wearing a pair of black pants and a black shirt with matching jacket. The black clothing meshed with his already dark skin, drawing into greater prominence the whites of his eyes. Initially his attire shocked her, until she realised that this was probably his way of dressing while in mourning for Larissa.

“Hey,” she said warmly, opening the door wide and welcoming him inside. “It’s so good to see you. How have you been holding up? We’ve all missed you.”

“I’ve just been keeping to myself. Um, Ari, I err, wanted to have a word with you last night, but you left so quickly, so I didn’t get a chance. Ragon told me about Sandra and the blood candy… I know you two are close; are you alright?”

Ragon had told Cambridge that Sandra was addicted to blood candy? Did that mean that he knew why? That Sandra had been so depressed about Larissa’s death that she had sought out an easy distraction.

“Yea… I mean… it’s been hard on all of us,” said Ari. “Larissa was-”

“-well, as long as you are ok,” Cambridge said hurriedly; apparently talking about Larissa was still too painful for him. “I was wondering if we could…”

Cambridge’s voice trailed off as someone yelled from behind Ari’s door.  

“Hello? Earth to Ari; come in Ari!”

Cambridge looked slightly irritated at the door, but stepped aside for Ari to answer it. When she had pulled the door open, Chris was standing in the entrance.

“Are we going to talk about…” he began, until he spotted Cambridge standing near the window, “oh, sorry,” he added, scanning Cambridge up and down once and pausing to stare blatantly at his long dreadlocks. “Didn’t realise you had company.”

Chris waved indifferently at Cambridge, but there was a sudden worried look in Cambridge’s face and he moved over to the door.

“Actually I just remembered I have to… I will come and find you later; we can chat then.”

With his eyes still locked on Chris, Cambridge bustled from the room and slammed the door shut.

“Geez, I thought it was just Ragon who was rude; guess they all are,” said Chris, moving over to Ari’s desk and hoisting himself up onto it.

“About yesterday…” Ari began, looking down quickly at her feet and then back into Chris’s light blue eyes, “I had to tell Ragon.”

“Why?”

“Um, maybe because Ragon is my boyfriend and I didn’t want to lie to him anymore,” she said.

“And so now I have to deal with him and the rest of his blood suckers trying to get me to use necromancy.”

“It’s not like that; Ragon isn’t like that; I’ve told you that,” said Ari. “I know that you said that vampires use wraiths but Ragon would never use that sort of dark magic. He wouldn’t want to.”

“When you are confronted with loss,” Chris said sombrely, “there isn’t anyone who wouldn’t sacrifice everything to bring back a loved one.”     

Ari was thinking of the best way to retort, when suddenly her phone sounded. Ari read the message once quickly and panicked:

‘Vice Chancellor has the coven on watch tonight. 2 vampires were killed last night. Don’t worry, everyone will be there. What time do you finish class? I can come and see you before I head off. Love you so much!’

“Shit,” she said out loud, entirely forgetting that Chris was still in the room.

“What’s wrong? Ragon got a toothache?” he asked, thumbing his canines purposefully.

Ari shot him a withering look but said, “I think that those waeres have made good on their promise. Apparently 2 vampires died last night.”

“I don’t know if you can say that a vampire has died; aren’t they already dead?” he asked, smiling wickedly to himself. “Just joking!” he added, holding his arms up to protect his face as Ari threw a pillow at him.

“That’s not funny. You may hate them but they are my friends, and I’ve lost someone I cared about already; she was a vampire and her death felt just as real as any humans.”

“Oh Ari, I’m sorry,” he said, looking down guiltily at his feet.

“You can’t just say sorry every time you say something like that.”

Ari had wanted to berate him further but a sudden fear washed over her. Sandra… Sandra had been in the woods, and Ragon had said that two vampires had been killed. What if it had been Thomas and Sandra who had been attacked? She reached for her phone and sent Ragon a message, pressing send before she had even had a chance to read over it:

‘Who was it… the vampires that were killed? It wasn’t anyone we know was it? Not Sandra or Thomas? I finish class at 6pm. Where are you going tonight?’

Almost a second after she had pressed send, her phone vibrated and she glanced down to see Ragon’s reply:

‘No one you know. We are patrolling the forest near Delta. But don’t get any crazy ideas- you’re not coming. My patrol starts at 5.30pm, so I won’t be able to see you beforehand. I will come to your room in the early morning when I’m done.’

Ari frowned and shook her head, before beginning to type her reply message. She was not even half way through however, when a second text from Ragon caught her attention:

‘Please don’t argue Ariana. We both know who is responsible for these deaths and we also know that your ‘gifts’ don’t work on them. You told me yourself, so you are NOT coming- so don’t ask. Besides, you will be in class when I leave and you have an exam to prepare for. Study hard. I know you will smash your exam!’

“But that’s ridiculous,” she said, throwing her phone angrily onto her bed.

“Um, what’s ridiculous? Batboy being a bad-boy?” asked Chris. “Get it… bat boy… and bad boy?”

“Seriously… batboy?” said Ari.   

“Too cliché?”

“Just a touch,” Ari said, sighing loudly; she knew she needed to tell Chris that vampire jokes were now officially off limits. “Did you not hear me before when I said you couldn’t keep apologising for all the lame jokes you make about Ragon and all the other vampires? The next time you crack one I am going to freeze you, then call Perry, Peter and Pip and tell them to do whatever they want with your body.”

“Ok, ok,” he said, holding his hands up in defeat and smiling gingerly at her. “No need to involve the three chipmunks. So what’s going on?”

“The new Vice Chancellor has instructed the Cruor Halls vampires to patrol the forest, because of the 2 vampires that were killed.”

“And let me guess. You want to go and help, because you don’t want Ragon to get hurt? But Ragon doesn’t want you to go because he doesn’t want you to get hurt? What a conundrum.”

“Well… yea,” said Ari, her hands on her hips and her mouth slightly open in surprise.

“I hate to say it, and I mean I really hate to say it, but I kind of agree with him.”

“You what?” she asked.

“Well think about it. It’s a bunch of waeres versus a mob of vampires. I am sure that the vamps can look after themselves. Besides, weren’t you the one who said that your freezing power didn’t work on the waeres? What are you supposed to do? Yell at them?”  

“Ok, ok, I get the point; I won’t go,” she said, moving over to her desk and gathering the palm cards she had spent the morning writing up. “Are you going to the lecture this afternoon?”

“What… miss two hours of parasitology with Dr Boring?” asked Chris. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world… you?”

“I kind of have to go. Dr Boringer set the mid-sem I am re-sitting tomorrow, remember. I thought it would look bad if I didn’t at least pretend to attend his class.”

“Good point,” said Chris.

By the time Chris and Ari made their way to the back of the lecture theatre, Dr Boringer was already reading monotone from a slide on the projector. It was his unapparent ability to inspire enthusiasm, and his generally dull subject matter, that had resulted in the coined nickname, Dr Boring.

“You nervous about the exam?” asked Chris, glancing down at the stack of palm cards Ari had hidden behind her lap top.

“Just a little,” she said.

At that moment Dr Boringer coughed loudly, and Ari glanced up to the front of the lecture theatre. Dr Boringer was eyeing her and Chris reproachfully, and so Ari pretended to be deeply in concentration with the slide that he was going through. It was less than a minute later when she felt her mind drifting and she glanced nervous at her lecturer, hoping it would be safe to re-commence reading over her palm cards. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice the small bandage on the side of Dr Boringer’s neck.

“You recon Dr Boring went on a hot date?” Chris whispered.

“What?” Ari asked.