Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (38 page)

“Does that mean that you can’t harm me either?”

“That is correct. I come here with an offer,” he said.

“An offer?” scoffed Ari.

“Yes, the Ancients wish to offer you a truce in exchange for your help.”

Ari felt the blood drain from her face. The Ancients… they were still alive.

“Oh,” said the wraith, cocking his head to the side as he considered her. “You believed that you had killed them? Well… I am sorry to disappoint you. They are, more difficult to vanquish than other vampires.”     

“What could they possibly want from me?”

“There is a powerful force nearby… a blood hunter. The Ancients want you to kill it,” he said.  

“And why would I help the Ancients?” said Ari. “In case you have forgotten, they tried to kill me.”

“The Ancients keep their promises; if you do this they will not attack you again,” he said. “They have learnt their lesson.”

“And why should I trust you or them?” said Ari, raising an eyebrow.

The wraith smiled at her. It was an unnerving smile that revealed many small narrow teeth.

“Unfreeze Cambridge and I will prove that I am a man of my word.”

Ari looked back at Cambridge and the coffin he was standing protectively over. The fact that Cambridge had lured her to this place, to meet with a wraith, was heartbreaking. She had no idea what he could have been offered in order to betray her and the coven like this. Ari felt her power of Cambridge wane, just as time restarted.

“Cambridge,” said the wraith, pointing to a small vial that was sitting atop the coffin. “Drink that.”

Cambridge moved over to the tiny brown glass ampoule and decanted it.

“Don’t,” said Ari. “You can’t trust him.”

But her warning was ignored. In one quick motion, Cambridge threw the contents into his mouth and swallowed.

“Now, remove the lid,” said the wraith, his eyes glowing brightly as he pointed to the coffin.

Cambridge hesitated but then pushed the lid away. Instantly Ari felt sick. She took one quick glance inside and felt her heart race, just as bile burned the back of her throat. In the coffin, with her hands folded over her chest, was Larissa, or what remained of her.

“Cambridge, no,” whimpered Ari, tears beginning to stream down her face.

“I’m sorry Ariana,” said Cambridge. “But you can’t imagine how empty I am without Larissa. But this wraith can bring her back for me.”

“But…” Ari began to say, desperate for him to see reason, “but you can’t! It’s not right. Sandra wouldn’t want it.”

“Now bite into your wrists and hold your hand over the body,” said the wraith.

Ari looked back at the echo of the wraith in disgust.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

“This is what he wants,” he said simply, a manic smile spreading across his face.

As soon as Ari turned back to Cambridge, he was biting into his wrist; unable to think of what else to do, Ari flung her hands up and stopped time again. Cambridge froze.

“Ariana, the potion I gave Cambridge will only work for a small window of time. Cambridge is a grown man; he has lived longer than you or I. He wants this,” said the wraith.

“You can’t bring her back,” Ari repeated sadly, staring at the wraith in disbelief and anger.

“Actually I can. It’s my gift and curse.”  

Ari couldn’t think. Her heart was hammering so loudly that it echoed oddly in her eardrums. She felt defeated and betrayed; finally she slumped down onto the floor and covered her head with her hands. A second later she felt her freeze wear off, and she let out a small whimper, as part of her broke on the inside.

She remained like this until the wraith spoke again, “Do we have a deal? I have proven myself to be a man of my word. If you agree to help the Ancients, they will not harm you.”

“Are you serious?” she spat, looking over at Cambridge, who was kneeling by the coffin, his bleeding hand stretched inside it. “I would never help you or the Ancients! You think I don’t know what they want? They want me to join them; to work for them. I noticed you offered me my own life, but not that of Ragon’s or anyone else in the coven.”

The wraith looked down at the ground, not arguing with her.

“Exactly!” she yelled. “This is the same offer they made me before, except now you’re trying to trick me into thinking that I can live my normal life. But I bet the second I help them they will have Ragon killed. They think if he isn’t around that I might be tempted to work for them… to be part of their family. But I never will.”  

“You think you live a normal life?” the wraith said, looking down as he began to slowly fade from sight, until there was no trace of him. “I can’t be held responsible for happens next. Just remember, I gave you a chance to work with us.”

Ari heard the echo of his words and shivered before turning to Cambridge. She knew from his pale complexion and the drawn look on his face, that he had lost a lot of blood.

As she moved closer, Ari watched as the blood trickling from Cambridge’s wrist and down his fingers was falling onto Larissa’s corpse, seeping into her dried skin. When Cambridge’s blood began to slow, Larissa started to change. In death her skin had been grey and sunken, but slowly it was become pink and plump. At the same time the fibres of her hair began to shine, just as the lingering smell of decay faded.

Larissa continued to lie with her hands folded across her chest and then she opened her eyes. Two red irises stared up at the roof, giving her a crazed appearance.

“There is some blood in the fridge,” said Cambridge, falling weakly to the ground.  

With all thoughts of disobeying him gone, Ari was on her feet, tearing through the living room in search of the kitchen. When she spied the small bar fridge, she raced over to it and threw it open, grabbing as many bags of blood as she could carry.

“I’m sorry,” said Cambridge, reaching for the blood bags and tearing one open. “This was the only way I could get her back. I didn’t want to trick you into coming here but...”

Ari became numb as Cambridge’s voice trailed off. She wouldn’t, couldn’t bring herself to look at Larissa. It was just too heartbreaking. How could Cambridge do this? How could he think that Larissa would have wanted it? Then her thoughts trailed back to something that Chris had said;
there isn’t anyone who wouldn’t sacrifice everything to bring back a loved one
. Ari was no stranger to loss. It wasn’t difficult for her to see the appeal, but she knew deep down that bringing back the dead was wrong. No matter how much she would want to use the evil magic of the wraiths to bring back her parents, she would never do it. It was wrong. But Ari had had decades to deal with the loss of her family; Cambridge’s wounds were fresh. Perhaps if she had of been presented with the same offer, then maybe she too would have succumbed to the temptation?

As soon as Cambridge had drunk his third bag, he stood shakily and peered hopefully into the coffin. Larissa stared back at him, but her expression had not change. Ari too had stood and was staring down at Larissa, but suddenly gasped when Larissa’s red eyes shifted so as to look at her. There was no warmth to her expression, no trace of life at all; just red orbs staring back at Ari.

“Here love,” said Cambridge, placing a blood bag into her hand.

Two frenzied hands blurred for the bag, tearing at it like a crazed animal, so that blood squirted in all directions, painting the room in red splashes. She was half way through her second bag when she looked up at Ari again. Cocking her head to one side, she stared at Ari’s neck and then without so much as a warning, lunged. Just before Larissa could reach her, Cambridge had blocked her path, pinning her back into the coffin while she continued to lash out desperately at Ari.  

“Run,” Cambridge screamed, holding onto Larissa’s arms and looking at Ari with wide scared eyes. “Run!”

Ari didn’t need telling twice. In a heartbeat she had raced to the front door, pulled it open and raced down the driveway, back towards the campus.

When Ari arrived back at the campus, around half an hour later, she was panting hard, her face drained of all colour. All thoughts of food and her mid-semester exam had been swept from her mind, and she moved as fast as her tired legs would carry her, over to Cruor halls, desperate to tell Ragon what had just happened.

“He did what?” roared Ragon, after she had recanted her story to him and the rest of the coven.

“What happened to Larissa?” asked Thomas.

“I don’t know,” said Ari, “when she tried to eat me I ran.”

“What the hell was he thinking… trusting a wraith?” said Clyde.

“As opposed to a waere?” said Thomas, turning to Clyde and shaking his head.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Clyde, rounding on Thomas and glaring at him.

“Well, the waeres attacked and killed two vampires a few nights ago, and probably killed Victoria,” said Thomas, “and you’re out there rescuing the first waere-girl who bats her eyelashes at you.”

“Hang on a minute,” said Clyde. “We have no proof that the waeres killed Victoria or those two vamps.”

“No? They warned Ari to stay out of the forest because they had
plans for the leeches
,” Thomas replied sarcastically. “What else would they be planning? Throwing us a party?”

It was then that Ari tried to speak, but Clyde’s loud voice cut across, “That’s bullshit and you know it. You’re just upset because Victoria was your fledgling and now you can’t find her. Why don’t you go and pray or something, maybe spend some quality time with your God; maybe then you will get the answers you want.”

Thomas’s hand jerked for the cross pendant that he wore around his neck, before he stormed towards Clyde.

“Wait,” Ari roared, “tonight, when I was with Cambridge and the wraith, the wraith asked me for my help.”

All the faces in the room turned to Ari in disbelief and Thomas stood still, waiting for Ari to continue.

“He told me that the Ancients wanted my help in destroying something that they couldn’t,” said Ari, looking around at each of the coven members in turn, “a blood hunter.”

“A blood hunter?” asked Thomas, “are you sure that’s what he said?”

“The Ancients are still alive?” asked Ragon.

“But where is it?” asked Thomas.

Several other questions were flung at Ari, and she tried to process all of them.

“I don’t know if the Ancients are definitely alive, but I can’t imagine why the wraith would lie. He said that the blood hunter was nearby, so maybe that’s who killed those vamps?” Ari suggested. “Maybe it wasn’t the waeres after all? I mean, I must have had that premonition for a reason. I think we were meant to save Riley.”

“The blood hunter must be incredibly powerful to have the Ancients worried,” said Thomas. “Normally they would send their Triad to deal with threats that the Elder’s aren’t equipped for, but seeing as they don’t have them anymore…”

“You didn’t say yes did you?” asked Ragon.

“Of course not!” said Ari, staring at him incredulously. “I had just watched him bring Larissa back from the dead; there was no way in hell I was going to make a deal with someone that evil.”

“We need to find out what’s going on,” said Ragon. “As much as I don’t like it, I think we need to talk with the waeres, try to figure out what they are responsible for and who the hell this blood hunter is. If there is a blood hunter on campus, then it could be after any one of us.”

Chapter 23 – Waere there’s a Clyde there’s a Way

That night Ari slept with Ragon in Cruor halls; she was still too shaken up to go back to her room. All through the night she kept having nightmares about Larissa; seeing those blood red eyes staring hungrily up at her.

When finally the morning came, Ari’s eyelids were heavy and there were large bags forming a semicircle under each eye. Small deposits of sleep had gathered in the corners of her eyes, and Ragon looked at her knowingly, before jumping to his feet and grabbing two towels, than bustling her to the bathroom.   

“Come on my love,” he said, “I know how much you love your showers. We’ll have one together. See if we can’t drive your nightmares away.”

As soon as the warm water spilled out from the nozzle, she moved under the shower, desperate to feel the familiar wash of revitalisation that always came with piping hot showers.

“Are you ok?” asked Ragon, pressing Ari up against his marble body, so that steam, erupted between them.

“Yea I’m fi-”

“Please don’t tell me that you’re fine,” he said, pulling her cheeks towards him and kissing them. “No one would be fine after what happened to you yesterday. I can’t believe Cambridge would betray us like that! I thought he was my friend.”

“He is your friend; he’s just… heartbroken. I think loosing Larissa cost him more than any of us realised,” said Ari.

“Still, he shouldn’t have done it.”

“I don’t think there isn’t anything someone wouldn’t do, to bring back the people that they love. Cambridge was presented with an option to have Larissa back, and he took it,” said Ari. “I mean, if I lost you…”

“Don’t talk like that. You haven’t lost me, you won’t lose me.”

“What about when you lose me?” Ari asked. “I mean, I’m human and-”

Ragon pulled her even closer, so close that she felt the air squeeze from her lungs, as he said, “Let’s not talk about that now. We’re together, we’re happy, we’re in love. I have you in my arms and that’s all that matters.”

Ari was surprised to hear herself defending Cambridge, but the more she thought about it, the more she could understand why he had done what he had. She could even understand why Ragon didn’t want to talk about what would happen when Ari died. It was, after all, inevitable. Ari was human and there was little chance that vampire toxin would work on her, the way it did normal humans. Still, Ragon was right; they didn’t need to think about that sort of stuff now. There were other more pressing matters to deal with.

Before long Ragon was turning the taps off and Ari raced to her towel, hurrying to get warm and dry. Ragon had only just wrapped his own towel around his waist, when there was a knock at the door. Opening the door Ragon gaped and Bridget swept into the room.

She took one look at Ari, still wearing only a towel and said, “It’s a little early to eat isn’t it?”

“Bridget, err, good morning. Did you want something?” asked Ragon, moving to stand in front of Ari, his hands gripping his towel tightly.

Bridget let her eyes rake over Ragon’s body and then she blurred so that she was standing in front of him.

“Get rid of the source and I will tell you what I want!” she said.

“Seriously?” said Ari, trying to push Bridget as she made her way back next to Ragon.

“It doesn’t bother you that she talks out of turn like this?” said Bridget, ignoring Ari entirely.

“What did you say to me?” asked Ari, her cheeks flushed.

“I have to be somewhere soon,” said Ragon, moving over to the door and holding it open for Bridget to leave. “Ari, please get dressed and leave; if I get hungry I will summon you. Bridget, I will see you at our meeting later this morning.”

“Well,” said Bridget, moving over to the door also, “just say the word.”

The moment Ragon closed the door, Ari rounded on him.

“Why did you do that?” she asked.

“I didn’t want any altercations,” he explained.

“Well, you have got one now. Why can’t you just tell the stupid cow that we are together?”

“Shh,” said Ragon, sweeping over to her and whispering. “You know why I can’t tell her. Vampires don’t fall in love with mortals. It’s unheard of.”

“Do you think I care if she hears me?” said Ari, raising her voice.

“You should. I am trying hard to keep you safe. I am trying to protect you while you study to become a vet. It would be nice if you didn’t anger the people who can make our life very difficult. You know everything I say to her, is because I love you. What does it matter what Bridget thinks? She means nothing to me. But if you anger her, she might act out. Bridget is capable of great cruelty.”

“Yea and capable of great flirting,” Ari mumbled.

“Come on,” said Ragon, pulling on a pair of jeans, “we have to go. We are meeting everyone at the Three Prong Trek.”

“You think the waeres will be there?”

“Well that was where you and Chris found them. We don’t really have anywhere else to start looking for them,” he explained. 

When Ari and Ragon arrived at the Three Prong Trek, the rest of the coven was waiting for them. Quickly Thomas divvied up the areas they would search for the waeres.

“Just be careful,” said Thomas. “I don’t want anyone getting wind of what we are doing. And there might be a blood hunter out there.”

Towards the end of the day and after searching the Three Prong Trek, surrounding forests and the majority of the campus, the coven were starting to fear that they wouldn’t be able to find the waeres. In a last attempt to locate them, Clyde had suggested searching the campus club.

“Well,” he said, as they walked back towards Cruor halls, “Riley, I mean, the
waere-girl
, was there before. It’s worth a shot. Besides, we haven’t seen anything of them out here, hide or hair!”  

Clyde had insisted on needing to go back to his dorm room before they went to the club, and Ragon indulged him, only because Ari said that she probably needed to get something to eat from the cafeteria before they left also. The coven had been waiting for Clyde for ten minutes, when Ragon became inpatient.

“Clyde, are you coming?” he yelled from outside Clyde’s bedroom.

It was unlike Clyde to take so long, and when he finally swung the door open a few minutes later, Ari knew why. His hair was freshly styled with some sort of gel, and he had changed clothes. Now he wore a pair of dark jeans, a white t-shirt under a navy long sleeved jumper. Topping off the outfit was a black scarf wrapped around his neck. Just before he had closed the door, Ari glanced inside his room and saw many clothes on the floor; clearly he had tried on multiple outfits.

“Lose the scarf,” she said, giving him a knowing glance.

“Too much?” he asked, throwing it back into his room before bouncing down the hallway, an obvious spring in his step.

“So what’s the plan?” said Thomas, as the group began the walk towards the campus bar.

“Well, we only know what two of them look like,” said Ragon, “Riley, and the guy who spoke to Ari and Chris in the forest. So I guess if we see them, we just try to have a conversation with them. I doubt very much that they will turn into beats and try to kill us in a packed club.”

“There may not even be any waeres there, what then? Go back to the forest and wait till dark?” Ryder suggested.

“I guess so,” said Thomas.

“But what about the blood hunter,” said Ari, and the entire coven turned to face her, shocked expressions on their faces. “What?” she asked incredulously, “don’t you think we should talk about that?”

“We have no idea who it is,” said Ragon.

“Yea but, obviously if there is a blood hunter, then they would be killing vampires they are um, related to. Is that what you said, that a blood hunter gains power by killing its maker and its maker’s maker, and so on. Couldn’t we try to work out if there is any relationship between the ones who were killed?” asked Ari.  

“Let’s just deal with one problem at a time,” said Ragon. “We only know about the blood hunter because of the wraith; maybe he was lying about it.”

“You think it might have been a trap?” asked Thomas.

“I don’t know. We know for sure there are waeres here, so let’s just start with them,” said Ragon. “If we find out they weren’t responsible, then maybe we look into this blood hunter more.”

When the group arrived at the campus club, they were a little disappointed to see that it was relatively empty. Walking purposefully over to the bar, Clyde ordered drinks for everyone and in his usual fashion, two for himself.

“We are supposed to be looking for-” Thomas began to say, but he stopped talking abruptly.

Clyde held out his hand to shush him; his eyes had fallen on a girl with messy blonde hair. She was across the room, playing pool with a boy, and hadn’t seemed to notice them yet.

“Is that her?” Thomas whispered.

Both Clyde and Ari nodded, and Thomas made to move forwards but Ari held out a hand to stop him.

“I think that you aren’t the best person to persuade her to talk to us,” she said, indicating Clyde. “I think seeing as Clyde saved her life…”

“Wish me luck,” Clyde whispered, throwing his head back and finishing both his drinks in quick succession.

“We’ll be outside,” said Thomas gruffly.

“Oh, she’s cute,” Patrick said excitedly.

“Adorable,” Ryder agreed. 

When Ragon went to take Ari’s hand, so as to join the others moving outside, Ari said, “Actually, is it okay if I stay here; I don’t know how this is going to play out. Clyde might need a wing man. Riley isn’t exactly a big fan of his, and that was after he saved her life.”

Ragon raised an eyebrow but did not argue, and continued with Ryder and Patrick to the outside smoking area, pulling his chair so that he could keep his eyes on Arianna the whole time.  

The moment Clyde’s eyes fell on Riley, he was in predator mode. Striding towards her, he ruffled his hair with his hands then glanced at the bar mirror. Clyde gaped at his reflection; he now resembled a spring chicken. Quickly he tried to flatten it, using his hands to press down the gel laden hair. Finally satisfied, he loosed his shirt and moved over to Riley. Ari, who had been watching the whole time, rolled her eyes; what was it about this girl that flustered Clyde so much?

“I know what you’re thinking,” Clyde said, smiling toothily at Riley and pointing at the three slash marks across his neck, “but you should see the other guy.”

Clyde laughed at his joke but Riley didn’t seem impressed; clearly he was going to have to do better than that.

“So are you seeing anyone?” Clyde asked nervously, grinning stupidly at Riley before he could stop himself.

Ari, who was watching from the bar in disbelief, had never seen Clyde so nervous. Normally he was smooth and charming, but now he was just embarrassing himself. His hands were held awkwardly at his sides and he kept staring at Riley with wide eyes, as though she were the first girl he had ever seen and he was asking her to go to prom.  

“No,” Riley replied indifferently, bending down low and taking a shot at the black ball, which rebounded off the opposite cushion and fell neatly into a hole.

Clyde hesitated. He seemed to be struggling with his smile; the result was that his face was stuck in between a grin and a snarl.

Riley was looking at him with concern, and then finally Clyde said, “Ok, good to know.”

Without another word he moved back over to Ari, grabbed her by the elbow and steered her away.  

“What the hell was that?” asked Ari, covering her mouth to try and stop from laughing.

Clyde did not answer.

“I thought you liked her?” Ari asked.

“I do.”

“So what happened? What’s the problem,” said Ari.

“I don’t know. I just froze.”