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

The moment that Riley moved towards them however, Clyde jumped to his feet and took her carefully by the arm, saying, “You’re not sitting out there in the cold and with all those smokers. What part of you’re sick, don’t you understand?”

Riley rolled her eyes but did not argue, and allowed Clyde to steer her inside the club.

“You look ravishing,” Ragon said in a whisper, standing to greet Ari.

“As do you my dear,” Thomas said admiringly to Sandra.

“Lea, you look absolutely splendid old girl,” said Chris, before laughing as he and Lea also joined the table. “You know what, we all look great!”

Just then Patrick and Ryder emerged from the club, handing out drinks to everyone from a large black tray. Ari took the drink offered her and downed in quickly. Ragon looked at her sideways, before offering her his own glass, which she took gratefully and sipped at, this time more leisurely.

“I seem to recall you making a promise to yourself at the end of last semester. Something about wanting to pass all your subjects without having to use vampire connections to get you resits,” said Ragon.

“Yea, well, tomorrow is different. It’s not an exam, exactly. We are just following a clinician around the vet hospital,” Ari explained.

“Besides,” said Chris, “today is technically our last day of holidays, so we aren’t really doing anything wrong.”

It looked as if Ragon were about to argue but just then Ryder hopped up and down excitedly, squealing as he said, “They’re here!” and gulped down his drink quickly.

At that exact moment a group of men walked into the club. Even without their crisp white naval uniforms and crew cut hair, it was obvious from their military stance, that they were soldiers. They were straight backed, with grim smiles on their faces. 

“I see mine,” said Patrick, pointing dramatically at a tall thin man with short blonde hair.

Ryder narrowed his eyes but his disappointment vanished almost instantly, when the group of sailors moved close to where they were sitting. Casually Ryder backed towards them, grinning to himself mischievously.

It happened so casually that had Ari not known any better, she might have thought that it was a genuine mistake. One minute one of the officers was walking past their table, and the next, Ryder was
accidently
bumping into him, knocking the sailor’s glass out of his hand, so that it smashed onto the floor, spilling its contents over the bricks beneath.

“Oh, my, gosh!” Ryder said dramatically, holding his hand to his chest as he looked down mournfully at the splayed ice on the floor. “I
cannot
believe that just happened. My apologies. Please I insist, let me buy you another drink.”

The soldier Ryder had bumped into looked down at the broken glass, seemingly upset, but on hearing Ryder’s overt apology, nodded briefly and began moving back to the bar.

“And that’s how it’s done,” Ryder whispered to the table, before winking and following the man to the bar.

“Seriously?” said Lea, looking at Ryder with her mouth open. “He knows I’m a witch, right?”

“We all know you’re a witch,” Chris said laughing, until Lea shot him a dirty look.

“Speaking of witches,” Thomas whispered under his breath, “is there any more news about the missing humans?”

Lea paused, her eyes darting around the club, clearly wanting to make certain she would not be overheard, before whispering, “The circle hasn’t found out anything new. We’re hoping that when a new Vice Chancellor has been appointed, they will put a stop to all this craziness with blood candy and missing students. I mean, they can hardly pretend that students aren’t going missing.”

“Hmm,” said Sandra, leaning forwards. “So you think the two are linked?”

Lea shook her head slowly, saying, “We don’t know what to think. We know that blood candy takes away vampires self-control and that it’s been getting more and more popular here. I mean, it is a plausible theory.”

“Well,” said Sandra, looking suddenly uncomfortable, “it’s just that, well, why would the vamps get rid of the bodies like that? Even if they are on blood candy. It’s not illegal to take it, and, like you say, it’s getting more and more popular. I swear half of Cruor is on it, and they all can’t be hiding bodies somewhere.”

“Well, even if the blood candy isn’t behind it all, a new Vice Chancellor won’t be able to ignore the fact that students are disappearing. Pretty soon someone from the police department is going to realise. Besides, it makes sense that vampires are behind it, so it stands to reason that the Elders or Ancients, or whoever, should be doing something about it” said Lea, then seeing the hurt look on Sandra’s face, added, “I mean, like, bad vampires are behind it. Oh, you know what I mean.” 

“So you think that the new Vice Chancellor will get to the bottom of it all? Funny, we haven’t heard about a new Vice Chancellor yet. I would have thought the Ancients would have appointed one by now. There’s usually always an Elder in vampire populated places,” said Sandra.

“Yea, it’s all very odd. That’s why my circle are looking into it. And you asked around at Cruor halls,” Lea went on, “no one knows anything about missing students?”

Leaning forwards, Ragon shook his head and said, “I didn’t exactly put it in so many words, but I made out that I had accidently killed a source and needed to find a way to make them disappear, but no one had any real suggestions for me. Just the usual, make it look like a bear attack, take their body to the hospital, you know.”

Lea frowned and said, “But we have looked in all the obvious places. The circles even performed tracking spells on the missing students. It’s literally like they have vanished.”

“Would a tracking spell work on a body?” asked Thomas. “I mean, assuming the missing students are dead?”

“It should do,” said Lea, though she didn’t look entirely convinced. 

“And the circle is alright with you telling us all of this?” asked Ari.

For the past few months there had been a lot of tension between Lea and her circle. Lea had betrayed them by protecting Ari, something they had not been thrilled about, that and the fact that Lea was on speaking terms with vampires, the natural enemies of witches.  

“Well,” said Lea, taking a meaningful look at Ragon, “they don’t know the exact details. They just know that I have a vampire, err, who tells me things.”

“What, like a pen pal?” said Ragon, laughing.

“At least they no longer suspect me of being lulled,” said Lea, sounding serious.

“And what am I?” asked Chris, his voice high and outraged. “Chopped liver?”

Lea smiled and shook her head, saying, “You’re more of a lungs and spleen kind of guy.”

“Well, he definitely isn’t brains,” said Sandra, joining in on the laughter.

“And what about me?” asked Ari, once everyone had stopped laughing.

“What about you?” Lea asked, looking at Ari sideways.

“Definitely not lungs, spleen or liver,” said Chris, still laughing. “Maybe-”

“-no, I mean, you haven’t told them that I am the Grandor-” Ari began, but Ragon hushed her immediately.

“Of course not!” said Lea, shocked. “Gran told me I have to protect you. You were there; don’t you remember? I mean, it’s not like I don’t trust my circle, but the fewer people who know about your
destiny,
the better, for you and them.”

Ari was about to respond when a high-pitched noise was omitted from the speakers on the stage. Everyone at the table turned to face the DJ’s box, wincing.

“Attention comrades,” a boyish voice called via the speakers, when the music had stopped playing.  

Looking around, Ari spied three boys, two standing goofily to the side of the DJ and one standing atop the small stage inside the bar, gripping tightly to a microphone. The moment she locked eyes on them, Ari recognised them instantly as the Omega hall jokesters: Peter, Perry and Pip. Pip had commandeered the microphone from the DJ, who had stopped playing his music and like the rest of the crowd, was looking up at him in confusion.

“We have a serious question to ask our noble visiting soldiers,” said Pip, unable to keep his face straight, as he gestured to a large group of men near the bar.  

“What did one sailor in line tell the other sailor in line?” asked Peter, moving up to the stage and pulling the microphone from Pip.

The crowd was silent. Ari looked around at the naval officers, uncertain of what was going on, when finally Perry joined the other two on stage.

“Quit poking me,” said Perry, before letting out a roaring laugh, which was mirrored by all in the crowd, with the exception of the naval officers.

Ari watched as the look of surprise on the sailor’s faces quickly turned to anger. The three boys on the stage seemed to notice this also, and perhaps realising that they were outnumbered, gingerly handed the microphone back to the DJ before racing out of the club.

“They should be in the armed forces,” said Chris, smiling at the retreating backs of Peter, Pip and Perry.

“Why?” asked Lea.

“Because that is real bravery,” he replied.  

“I’m going to get another drink,” said Ari, standing suddenly and pushing her chair out.

When Ari walked back inside, she saw Clyde and Riley sitting together. Riley had a drink in her hand, though she sipped at it unenthusiastically, and kept pressing her hands to her stomach. It was obvious that although she pretended to be fine, she was still very much sick. Ari felt guilty for not making Riley stay at home in bed, but she that the girl would have insisted on coming anyway. Ari was just walking over to the pair, thinking of suggesting they call it a night, when someone caught her attention.

“Ari! Hey Ari, come over here.”  

Ari spun around and saw Ryder sitting at the bar, the sailor he had knocked into earlier sitting next to him.

“Not drinking too much are you?” she asked, taking a long glance at the soldier next to Ryder, who was guzzling down a beer.

“Ari, this is Glenn,” said Ryder, introducing her to the soldier.

Ari shook Glenn’s hand quickly, at the same time looking for any obvious bite marks on his wrist.

“Could I tempt you with another one?” Ryder asked Glenn, indicating the soldier’s now empty glass.

Glenn wiped his mouth and nodded once. Still thinking of ordering a drink herself, Ari looked across the bar and received a shock. An older man, also dressed in a sailor’s uniform, was glaring at her. Though his face was partly hidden by shadows, Ari was sure that she had never seen him before, and yet he was staring right at her. The stranger’s eyes were thin slits, causing small wrinkles to line the side of his face.   

“Do we know him?” she asked, nodding her head towards the stranger as inconspicuously as possible.