Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (43 page)

“And how do you plan on getting to and from America in the space of a day?” asked Ragon. “Does this have something to do with Lea and the wraith?”

“Please. I can’t tell you, so don’t ask, but I promise you, if this works out, everyone will win; everyone except the Blood Hunter.”

After that Ari made to race from his room, but Ragon grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him.

“About earlier,” he said, “I know it was selfish of me, not to want you to be involved.”

“I don’t think your selfish, your just, protective… maybe a little too protective. But don’t worry, I think it’s hot.”

“You do?” he asked, pulling her even closer and kissing the nape of her neck.

 “Oh yea, tie me up and keep me locked in a room, kind of hot.”

“I did try that with you early on,” he said, and Ari knew he was referring to the first night they had met, when Ragon had kept her in his family Mausoleum.

“And I totally wanted to jump you then, too.”

“Really? I seem to recall you escaping though a window to get away from me,” said Ragon, a wicked smile on his face.

“Guess I just didn’t know what was good for me. Look, Ragon, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you in a few hours?”

“You know,” he said, pulling Ari even closer to him, his fingers interlocking in her hair, “part of me wants to be selfish. Part of me wants to keep you here. I mean,” and his voice was no longer lustful, simply sad, “what if this is our last night together?”

“Don’t say that.”

“But the other part of me, wants to let you go. Hoping that you don’t get back in time,” he said mournfully. “That’s the selfish part of me; the part that wishes that you weren’t involved in any of this. That part hopes that if you don’t get back in time, you won’t have to fight.”

“Oh Ragon. Everything is going to be fine! I promise. Chris and Lea are helping us. You’ll see. Tomorrow we can have an entirely non-selfish night together. Then maybe you can tie me up in this room and…”

“Until tomorrow night then,” he said, kissing her.

Ari kissed him back hungrily, trying hard not to think of it as a kiss goodbye. There was so much passion in his embrace, it was almost impossible for her to pull away and leave. But she had to.

When she had raced back to Chris’s dorm, she wasn’t surprised to find Lea and Chris sitting in opposite sides of the room.

“Ok,” said Ari, looking at Chris hopefully, “now it’s your turn. We need to get to Marblehead in Massachusetts.”

“Oh, ok… well I will just go and grab my hat,” said Chris, fanning for the door before turning to stare in disbelief at Ari. “You know, so that I can pull a rabbit out of it.”

Lea let out a small laugh and said, “That was your big plan? You read somewhere that wraiths can move people through space, and so you thought that your half-wraith would be able to help?”

Ari glared at Lea but ignored her; turning to face Chris she said, “Please! You have to try.”

“Ari, I moved us from the Three Prong Trek to the campus club. That is a little different than what you are asking,” he replied.  

“Wait, what? You can actually do it?” said Lea, her mouth open in unflattering disbelief. “You have ferried before?”

“Ferried?” asked Ari.

“That’s what it’s called when you move from one place to another,” said Chris. “Ferried, ferrying… basically it is teleportation.”

“Yea,” said Lea, “but it’s only supposed to be powerful wraiths that can do it; that’s why I didn’t think that-”

“-why thank-you,” said Chris, interrupting Lea before she could insult him further.

“It wasn’t a compliment,” said Lea.

“Really?” said Chris, sarcastically. “I had no idea.”

“Enough, both of you!” said Ari; Lea looked as if she were just about to retort but Ari was sick of their bickering. “I get it; I get why you are both sceptical of trusting each other, because… because of what you are. Until a year ago I had no idea about any of this. But then Ragon rescued me, and he rescued me from a human… a bunch of boys who wanted to rape me. They didn’t have any powers, they couldn’t be swayed by what they were born as, but they weren’t good; they were bad. And so I found out about vampires, wraiths, waeres and witches… all of it. And I know that vampires are supposed to be evil, but Ragon and his coven aren’t. That’s not to say that there aren’t evil vampires; there are, I have seen them, they were responsible for the death of my parents, but they’re not the ones that I’m asking help for. And everyone, even vampires, have said that wraiths are evil… hell, one helped kidnap me and ferried me to the ancients. But Chris is nothing like that monster. And yes, witches are supposed to be good. But even your friends attacked me. The way I see it, everyone, regardless of what you are born as, have the potential to be good or evil. Most of the time it isn’t black and white like that, and I am not telling you trust each other because you are both one hundred percent good. There is both light and dark inside all of us; I just want you to trust me, trust that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt either of you.”

Chris looked down at his feet but nodded slowly, saying, “I can’t promise anything, but I will do anything I can to help.”

A surprised expression swept over Lea’s face; she was staring at Chris and then moved closer to him and said, “I think I can help you with that.”

To Ari’s surprise, Chris did not reply with a sarcastic response but continued to stare at Lea, waiting. Perhaps there might be a chance for a friendship between a wraith and a witch after all? Well maybe not a friendship, but at least a cordial acquaintance. Apparently Ari’s speech had done the trick.

“Ok,” said Lea, “so Chris, you have ferried before?”

“Yea,” Chris admitted. “The first time I did it, it was an accident. But I have kind of mastered moving myself a few miles away. When I did it with Ari, it was the first time I had taken a passenger.”

“And if you try to go further than a few miles what happens?” asked Lea.

“Mostly I just feel drained and can’t do it. Usually after I ferry I have to sleep for ages afterwards anyhow, but one time when I tried to get from campus to town, I fainted. Didn’t wake up for like an entire day,” he said.

Lea frowned, then rushed for the door and said, “I have got to go and get something from my room.”

“You had better know what you’re doing,” Chris whispered to Ari, just as Lea disappeared. “If this doesn’t work there is a chance I will be asleep for a year or so… sleeping beauty style.”

Ari smiled grimly but did not reply. Did she know what she was doing?

“Alright,” Lea said, racing back into the room, now carrying an assortment of objects, “are you ready to get started?”

“Are you at least going to tell me why we need to go to Marblehead?” asked Chris.

Ari looked at Lea who sighed.

“It would probably help you concentrate if you knew what’s at stake, and why we need to get there so quickly,” said Lea.

“Great, let’s tell him!” said Ari, about to jump into the story of the blood hunter curse, until an acrid burning smell preceded smoke pouring out of her mouth.

“What the hell?” Chris asked, jumping back.

“Forgetting something?” asked Lea, before turning to Chris, taking his hand and placing it over her heart. “Don’t get any funny ideas.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” said Chris, gulping loudly. “Just out of curiosity,” he added, looking down, where Lea had placed his hand firmly against her heart. “The reason why I am feeling you up, doesn’t have anything to do with why Ari keeps mimicking a chimney?”

“Lea needs to make sure we don’t tell anyone,” Ari explained.

“Yea,” said Chris, “that’s what I usually do when I want to make sure someone keeps a secret. Except I prefer to make them cough up razor blades. I find it sends a more decisive message.”

Ari laughed and even Lea managed a smile, before saying, “I don’t know the spell for razor blades; maybe you could tell me and I could try it now with you?”

“You have a problem with not having the last words, don’t you?” Chris asked Lea.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Lea.

“We are kind of on a deadline,” said Ari, though she couldn’t help but smile at the banter going on between Chris and Lea; unless she was much mistaken, it was almost as if they were flirting.

Lea nodded and whispered, “
Celo,
” just as she began performing the same magic she had earlier with Ari, this time to bind Chris’s silence.

Ari could not hear the rhythmic pounding of Chris and Lea’s heart; she thought that perhaps only those in the midst of the binding spell could. A moment later white smoke poured from Lea’s mouth and Chris breathed it in. When Chris had finished coughing, Lea dived into the story about the blood hunter curse and her family’s ties to its inception; when Lea’s tale had ended, Chris let out a long low whistle.

“So now you know,” said Lea, removing her hand from Chris’s chest and searching through the montage of items she had brought up with her, finally retrieving a photograph. “That’s why it’s so important that we get to Marblehead. My grandma is the only person alive who has any chance of breaking the curse, and she won’t just hand over the details over the phone. If we can’t stop the blood hunter, if he kills Thomas… nothing will be able to stop him.”

“How do we know the blood hunter is even that powerful?” asked Chris.

“The Ancients themselves asked me to destroy it,” said Ari, and Chris’s eyes widened in amazement. “They sent a wraith to offer a truce.”

Ari had just about made mention of how the wraith had scored an audience with her, but she didn’t think that Lea or Chris would be too happy to hear that a wraith had bought Larissa back from the dead to do it.

“So,” said Lea, “you already know how to ferry. It’s just the distance and number of people that we need to adjust.”

“Yea,” Chris agreed. “All I need to do is magic us from an island off England to America… simple.”

“What you need, is access to more power so you can ferry further. I am going to help you channel my magic, but first you need to know where we are going. Look at this picture,” said Lea, sitting on the floor next to Chris and holding out the photograph for him.

Ari glanced down and saw a photograph of a dark blue house, covered in fluffy white snow, instantly thinking it looked like a gingerbread house with frosting. There was a small letterbox in front of the house, where the number 25 was written in silver, and in front of this two people, an old lady and a young girl, who were smiling caudally at the camera.

“This is where you will be taking us; close your eyes and picture where we will be going,” said Lea, talking with a confidence that Ari appreciated. “This is my grandmother’s house; she lives at 25 Warner drive, Fairview in Marblehead. Now close your eyes and start breathing deeply. It is cold in Marblehead this time of year; the snow is starting to fall. Because my grans house is so close to the ocean, you can smell salty sea water from the veranda.”

As Lea spoke, a picture of her gran’s house was beginning to form in Ari’s mind. She watched as Lea grabbed a pen from the assortment of things she had brought, and drew a large circle encasing her and Chris.

“Ari,” Lea said, gesturing for her to join them inside the circle.

“That had better not be a permanent marker,” said Chris, peaking from behind his eyelids as he watched Lea complete the circle.

“Close your eyes,” said Lea, turning back to Chris with a large smile on her face. “Are you ready to take us? I am going to share my magic with you. You will feel the power rush at you; don’t let it consume you, just let it sit in the back of your mind like a reserve that you can tap into if need be.”

Chris kept his eyes closed and nodded.

“
Partem
,” Lea whispered, and Ari watched as Lea’s whole body seemed to blur, as if she were no longer solid but made of air or liquid. “
Partem Potestatis
,” she said again, though Ari saw two distinctive mouths that spoke, and realised that Lea had somehow split herself into two forms; one glowing red the other a deep blue.