Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (22 page)

It was sometime later when Ari finally woke to the gentle hum of the heater in her room, warm air jostling around her face. Night had fallen and when she craned her neck to glance out of the window, she could see that tiny stars were beginning to dot the sky. Ragon was nowhere to be seen and Chris sat next to her on the bed, watching helplessly as she shivered.

“Thank God you’re awake. Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked, inching closer to her and pressing his hand against her face, so as to cup it in his hands. “You still feel pretty cold.”

Ari’s eyes widened. She had been surprised by this intimate action and struggled to sit up, fighting with the many pillows Chris had placed underneath her head. When she was finally upright, she couldn’t help but stare at Chris. For a moment she wondered why he had no shirt on, then recalled how he had draped his clothes over her after… her mind trailed off, as image after image raped her memory, all culminating in Dr Helen’s corpse, hanging from a hook in the freezer.

“That bitch… she killed Dr Helen,” Ari said, as a violent shiver overtook her.

“What?” What bitch?”

“Bridget,” Ari whispered.

“What? Why?”

Ari couldn’t bring herself to say the truth; Bridget had killed Dr Helen as a way of getting back at her after she had spoiled her trick on April. But it was more than that. It wasn’t just about April and some stupid prank. Ari couldn’t help but give in to the nagging feeling that Bridget’s actions had been fuelled from her desires to be with Ragon. Her face mirrored this realisation, just as a wave of sadness washed over her. Bridget had said that Ari and Ragon had had a falling out. Had Ragon spoken to Bridget since their fight? Tears stung her eyes suddenly but she blinked them back. She and Ragon were in love… weren’t they?

Seeing this change in Ari, Chris reached closer to her again, this time resting his hand near hers and tracing a small purple scar that was thrown into view by her sub-normal temperature.

“Chris, don’t,” Ari said, trying to move away from him.

“Why do these things always happen to you? Why are you always getting hurt? What you said the other night…”

“Chris, I don’t think we should talk about that now,” Ari said.

“When will we talk about it? I can’t forget that night.”

“Chris-” Ari started to say, but Chris cut her off.

“-I know what you think. That it was a mistake. But, but you don’t make mistakes like that. That was something deep down inside of you, telling you that you shouldn’t be with Ragon.”

“No, it wasn’t. That was too much alcohol and my being jealous about Ragon and Bridget,” Ari argued.

“You’re just telling yourself that because you are feeling guilty. But you shouldn’t. You don’t have to feel guilty about wanting to be with me. I want to be with-”

“-Chris stop! Please, please don’t say that, because, because I can’t tell you the same thing. I want to be with Ragon,” said Ari, too afraid to look up at Chris. “I always will. Even if he never forgives me for what I did. I love him.”   

“Look at what just happened. How can you still want to be with him after all of this? I could look after you. I could take you away from all of this.”

Chris reached down and took Ari’s hand in his, at the exact moment that her bedroom door flung open and Ragon appeared. His face was drawn and calculating, and as he moved over to Ari, he looked down and saw the pair still holding hands. Quickly Ari jerked away from Chris.

“Don’t you own any clothes?” Ragon snapped, glaring at Chris.

Again Ari was reminded that she was wearing Chris’s jumper and she hastened to remove it.

“It’s ok,” said Chris, leaning down and touching Ari’s cheek once more, “you keep it. You’re still half frozen. Just, just promise me that you will think about what I said, ok Ari?”

Behind Ari there was a snarl and she looked up to see Ragon racing at Chris, his fangs beared and a murderous look in his eyes. Ari stifled a scream, anxious about drawing attention to her room, and watched helplessly as the pair began throwing fast punches at one another.

“You bastard,” said Ragon, leaping on top of Chris and punching him hard in the jaw. “I knew wraiths were evil but I didn’t think that extended to stealing other people’s girlfriends.”  

Chris spat blood onto the floor, smiling up at Ragon as he swung his leg to kick him in the back of the head. Ragon fell to the ground, but before Chris could do much more, Ragon was on top of him again, throwing punch after punch. After a while Chris stopped fighting and focused solely on defending himself from the onslaught.

“Ragon stop… you’re going to kill him,” screamed Ari, racing from her bed and trying to pull Ragon away. “Ragon, stop, please!”

And for a few moments the pair did just that… froze, so that they and everything around them was completely still. But the bliss did not last long; Ari had no time to think, let alone act, and before she had thought of what to do next, her freeze wore off and Ragon’s fist smashed down hard into Chris’s ribs, so loudly that she was certain she’d heard them crack.

“Please stop this,” she screamed again, knowing full well her powers would only delay the inevitable.

But Ragon would not or could not stop. His rage and jealously had consumed him entirely. Ari tried throwing herself between the pair, but it was no good, they just kept fighting around her. Ari looked down helplessly at Chris; his face was a half bruised and bloody mess, and Ari was sure that he wouldn’t be able to take much more of a beating and remain conscious. She was just considering throwing the door open and calling for help, when she noticed something very odd. The light in the room had seemed to fade, sucked in somehow. But it wasn’t just the retreating light which had caused the darkness; the shadows in the room were spreading, stretched out as if there were torches placed intricately to illuminate them.

Ragon too had noticed the bizarre change; his eyes were wide, almost cat-like, as he glanced nervously around. Ari was just about to ask what the hell was going on, when Chris stood. His eyes were the colour of coals that had burnt out. Rather than looking at the shadows or even being surprised by them, he was glaring at Ragon. Chris’s dark gaze fixated on Ragon’s shadow, and Ari watched in horror as the black mass seemed to tremble and recoil. At the same time Ragon flung his hands to his head, his mouth stretched open in a silent scream, as he fell to his knees in agony.

“Chris, Chris what are you doing?” Ari cried, racing to Ragon’s side as she tried to pull him from his trance.

Neither Ragon nor Chris responded. Chris was now advancing on Ragon, his hand held out, pointing straight at Ragon’s chest. Still with his mouth open in terror, Ragon reached a shaking hand to his nose, where thick congealed blood had begun to pour. Ari tried to wipe the blood away, but the stream did not slow and soon it was leaking from his eyes and ears as well.  

“Chris no!” said Ari, standing and shaking Chris.

Chris looked at her indifferently, his black eyes boring right through her blue ones, as if he couldn’t see her at all. Behind her Ragon collapsed; there were large pools of blood around him, growing larger and larger, like a sea of fiery red against her carpet.

“Chris,” screamed Ari, and she shook him hard, trying to force him to hear her.

Chris snarled at her and in one quick motion, hit her with the back of his hand so that she flew across the room. She hit the wall hard, her head smashing against the brickwork as she crumpled to the floor.

“Chris… you’re not like this,” Ari whimpered, and from behind Chris’s black eyes, something green flickered and he blinked down at her in confusion. “You’re not evil.”

When Ari looked up, Chris’s eyes were no longer empty but remorseful; he stared from Ari and then over to Ragon, as if unsure of what had happened.

“I, I don’t understand,” he said, and as he spoke his whole body trembled, and all around him the shadows in the room shuddered also.

Slowly the room lightened, the shadows retreating into the darkness. Ari tried to focus on Ragon; though he was still lying in a pool of blood, he was no longer bleeding and she pulled herself across the room, desperate to reach him.

“I’m, I’m sorry,” Chris mumbled, racing for the door and throwing it open before disappearing.

“Ragon?” breathed Ari, her face an inch from his as she pulled him towards her, his blood staining her clothes and sinking through to her skin.

Ragon did not answer at first. He looked dazed, half dead, but then slowly, very slowly, he opened his eyes.

“What happened?” he choked, coughing up dark blood which stuck to his lips.

“I don’t know.”

Ragon nodded dumbly, reaching his hand out as he tried to prop himself upright. The muscles in his arm looked paler than ever she’d seen before, and they quivered pathetically as he tried to use them. As much as she could, Ari helped. Her head was pounding and she was shivering, but she managed to reach across and pull him so that he was sitting. He looked ghastly, deathly pale and his fangs were unsheathed as he stared off into space before his eyes locked on her neck.

“Get away from me,” he snarled.

“But, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this… any of this to happen. I love you Ragon. It was just a kiss, just a stupid drunken kiss. It didn’t mean-”

“-no,” said Ragon, his voice weak and ragged, “I can’t be near you. I need blood.”

Ragon staggered to his feet; he made it two paces towards the door before he collapsed to the floor again.

“Ragon!”

Throwing her hands up into the air, Ari stopped time. She didn’t know what else to do. Quickly she reached for her phone and called Clyde; his number had been the first one to pop up in her contact list and she waited with bated breath for him to answer.

“Clyde,” she yelled, her slippery red stained fingers trying hard to grip onto the phone, “come quick to my dorm room. Bring blood. Ragon’s hurt.”

“Shit,” Clyde said, and then hung up the phone.

After that Ari moved to Ragon’s side. Her head was still spinning from where she had hit the wall, but she ignored this; she had to help Ragon. With all the effort that she could muster, she looked around the room for something, anything that she could use to cut herself with. Finally her eyes fell on Ragon’s fangs. They were still unsheathed, glistening white, like two sharply carved knives. In an instant she brought her hands down onto them, crying out in pain as the skin of her wrist tore away from the pressure. Red blood blossomed from the wound and she prised her wrists against Ragon’s mouth, willing him to drink.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the door to her dorm swung open and Clyde raced in, shortly followed by a stranger; a dark haired girl, Ari had never seen before. Clyde looked down at the bloody mess, quickly throwing Ari onto the bed as he directed the girl to Ragon. The girl moved silently, sitting down cross legged as she copied Ari’s previous actions and thrust her wrists into Ragon’s mouth.

“What happened?” asked Clyde, moving over to Ari’s bed and reaching out to touch her head.

“Chris,” said Ari, struggling to find the words, “he did something to Ragon. I don’t know what, but, Ragon just stated bleeding.”