Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (44 page)

“What the?” asked Ari, and she gasped as the glowing blue form of Lea rushed at Chris.

“I have split myself into body and power,” the red glowing form of Lea said, and Ari saw that there was a circle on Lea’s forehead, the same symbol she had seen earlier on Lea’s book of light- the crown family crest. “Now concentrate Chis. You have enough magic to do this, just concentrate; see where you want to go and see us going with you.”

Ari felt herself concentrating too and she closed her eyes.

“Hold onto your hats!” Chris said, squeezing Leas and Ari’s hand in his.

An instant tugging had Ari clasping onto Chris’s hand tightly. From behind her eyelids, it felt as if the room was beginning to blur and she opened her eyes, seeing a whirlwind blow around them. Both girls’ hair meshed together in a sea of brown and red and then, without warning, the three began to rise, so that they were levitating a few feet above the ground. Ari felt the difference immediately, as if her bones were aerated; she did not feel off balance or as if she might fall, rather it was simply as if gravity had been altered.

Breathing in deeply Ari thought she could taste salt on her lips, just as the temperature in the room dropped drastically. Then her hand was grasped even firmer, and Ari was falling, her stomach catching up with her mouth as her body plummeted through nothingness. Almost as soon as it began, it stopped, and Ari felt her body collide with the hard earth.  

“Ah,” Ari screamed, hearing a loud honking as she scrambled to her feet.

She had landed in the middle of a road and saw two dazzling headlights heading straight for her. She was blinded by the light but threw her hands up quickly, stopping time so that a cab was motionless in front of her, the horn no longer screaming in her ears. There was no chance to look for Lea or Chris; Ari barely managed to race onto the safety of the curb, before time restarted. The horn continued to honk for another second and the taxi driver sped away, but not before sticking his head out the window and yelling absurdities at Ari.  

“Ari!”

Ari whipped her head around to see Lea and Chris, standing next to each other on the opposite side of the road.

“Did it work? Are we there?” screamed Ari, looking over at Chris and Lea, and realising that they were still holding hands.

Lea looked down at Chris in surprise and quickly released his hand, blushing slightly.

“Yea, Chris did… good!” Lea yelled back, waiting for a car to pass, before quickly running across the road to join Ari. “Welcome to Marblehead!” she added, pointing to the end of the street, where a small blue house stood; Ari recognised it immediately as Lea’s grandmother’s house from the picture.     

The trio walked along the frosty pathway towards Lea’s gran’s house. It was only about 200metres from where they had landed, but Ari was already regretting not having the foresight to bring a jumper. She shivered as a cool breeze danced across her arms and face, and Ari saw with a pang of astonishment, that there was the smallest amount of snowy precipitation falling from the sky. The tiny snowflakes melted as soon as they touched her warm skin, leaving a faint salty smell, as if they had been born from the ocean earlier that day

“Chris, you will need to wait here,” said Lea; she had come to a stop two house before her grandmother’s house and was looking around nervously. “I’m sorry, but my gran would freak if she saw a wraith!”

Though Ari had expected it, Chris did not argue, and so both Lea and Ari walked to the front door, rang the partially frozen door bell and waited. It seemed to take ages for Lea’s grandmother to answer the door. As Ari stood and waited in the freezing weather, she felt the time pressing down on her; she would not fail Sandra the way she had failed Larissa.

“Coming,” Lea’s grandmother said, finally swinging the heavy oak door open and looking a little surprised to see her granddaughter standing in front of her.

“Hi gran,” said Lea, smiling toothily as she pushed Ari in front of her, “gran this is Ariana; the girl I told you about on the phone. Ari this is my grandmother, Chiara.”

Chiara looked to be about eighty. She had long white hair, which like Lea’s was wavy, although nowhere near as thick. She was slightly bent over but still tall, and her pale skin was drawn and wrinkled around her face. Small dark eyes stared at Ari sceptically, until she craned her head around the corner to read a small cuckoo clock on the wall and frowned.

“But how did you get here so fast?” asked Chiara, her eyes narrowed.

Ari gulped; no one had thought about what they would tell Chiara when they arrived at her doorstep a few hours after speaking with her on the phone. Without meaning to, Ari glanced obviously at the end of the driveway, where she knew Chris was waiting, just out of sight.

“Gran,” Lea said slowly. “I know what you-”

But Chiara wasn’t listening; her eyes had followed Ari’s line of sight, and she brushed passed Ari and stormed out of the house, moving much more swiftly then what would be expected of a lady in her eighties.

“-tell me you didn’t ferry here,” said Chiara, looking back at Lea, her eyes fiery. 

Wearily, Lea followed her grandmother towards the road. The moment she had reached her, Chiara reached for Lea so forcefully that Ari let out a small whimper, until she realised that Chiara was merely staring down at the lines on Lea’s palm, like a fortune teller might.

“Bring him to me,” said Chiara, pointing off to the distance, where Ari knew Chris was waiting.

Ari shot a worried look at Lea and for one wild moment, Ari though that Lea would refuse, but then she dropped her head and called out, “Chris, come and meet my gran.”

Chris appeared a moment later, looking from Ari and then to Lea; finally his eyes fell on Chiara.  

“Pray tell,” said Chiara, “what possessed you to commission a wraith to bring you here?”

“He’s only half wraith,” Lea said weakly. “He’s a friend.”

Chiara stared at Chris with squinted eyes; it was clear from her expression that it didn’t matter that Chris was only part wraith; she didn’t trust him in the slightest.

“I might just wait back out-” Chris began to say, until Chiara reached for his hand and flipped it up so that she could read his palm also.

“Do not move wraith or I shall curse you into oblivion,” she said, straightening up.

Immediately there was an odd sense of power in the air, almost like the cackle of electricity. It caused the hairs on the back of Ari’s neck stand upright; clearly Chiara was a very powerful witch.

Chris gulped loudly, watching in terror as Chiara bent down to inspect his palm. She was squinting as she traced the grooves that ran up and down the insides of his fingers. Then her eyes widened, causing the tiny creases that surrounded them to disappear entirely. She rubbed furiously at the line trailing from Chris’s thumb to his wrist, as if not believing what she was seeing. Finally she dropped his hand, an odd bemused expression on her face.

“You are not evil,” she said, staring him straight in the face, just as she relaxed her stance; immediately Ari felt the hairs on the back of her neck fall down and the crackle of electricity die. “But you are capable of darkness… then again,” she added, looking at Ari with a perplexed expression on her face, “aren’t we all.”

“Gran,” said Lea, glancing across the road and then back at her grandmother’s house, “we need your help. We don’t have a lot of time. I know how you feel about wraiths… I feel the same, but Chris is different.”

“Yes, that much is obvious. Very well,” said Chiara, “come inside, all of you; I’ll make us a cuppa. Then you can tell me what this is all about.”

Chiara’s house was perfectly designed and decorated to counteract the freezing sea breeze and strong winds of Marblehead. The house was built from brick; it was so thick that the moment Chiara closed the front door, all remnants of traffic noise evaporated and warmth settled around Ari. But it wasn’t just the brick construction that kept the house warm; a large fireplace sat snugly in the corner of the living room, while many plush rugs lined the floors. There was a small veranda at the rear of the house, from which Ari thought it might be possible to get a glimpse of the ocean, though the wooden shutters were firmly closed against the chill outside.

Lea and Ari sat on a lush white couch that was covered by woollen cushions and many hand-knitted throws, while Chris stood near the window, using his fingers to prise open the shutters, so as to peer outside.

“Tea,” said Chiara, appearing a moment later, balancing a wooden tray, laden with many mugs.

After everyone had taken a cup, Chiara sat next to her granddaughter and reached for a packet of cigarettes and lit one. She was blowing out a large circle of smoke and staring at Ari without blinking.

“This is the girl you told me who was descended from Mary Grandor?” Chiara finally asked, looking at Ari. “And you have magic?”

Lea nodded and Ari said, “Yea. When I started being able to um, do weird things, I traced back my ancestors and found out that I was related to a girl called Mary Grandor who was burnt at the stake for practising witchcraft. I thought perhaps that I was a witch…”

Still staring at Ari, Lea’s gran took her by the hand and pulled her closer; a powerful stench of stale tobacco assaulted Ari’s nostrils and she curled her nose in response. At first Ari was thinking that the elderly lady wanted to shake hands with her, but it quickly became apparent that this was not the case. Ignoring the perturbed look on Ari’s face, Chiara turned Ari’s hand palm-upwards and uncurled her fingers, then used her own wrinkled hand to trace the lines in Ari’s skin, just as she had with Chris and Lea.

“And the wraith… he knows what you can do?” asked Chiara, though Ari had the feeling that Chiara already knew the answer to her question.

“Um, I have a name,” said Chris, but Chiara continued to stare at him until he finally answered her. “Yea, I know what Ari can do; I have been trying to help her get control of her powers.”

“You trust him?” asked Chiara.

“I trust Chris with my life,” Ari said.

The surprise on Chiara’s face vanished quickly and was replaced with a look of contemplation, as if she were wresting with something. Finally she sighed and released Ari’s hand.  

“Tell me child,” said Chiara, “what is it that you can do?”

“She can stop time, see the future and burst into sunshine,” Lea said quickly.

Chiara’s eyes widened and Ari nodded in affirmation.

“I never thought I would live to see it,” said Chiara, her eyes wide as she contemplated Ari, “the coming of the Grandor descendant.”

“Huh?” Chris, Lea and Ari, all said together.

“It is an old legend, one which dates back to the birth of the immortals. The legend has morphed over time, so much so that few still believe in it. The story goes that the first witch was an immortal called Grandor; he created a powerful enchantment that would allow his bloodline to develop powers against the vampires. It was foretold that his descendants would bring about the end of vampirism.” 

“Wait what?” said Ari; what did that mean?

“I have seen it in your palm, and from what you say you can do,” said Chiara, “you are a Grandor descendant and you have a dark road ahead of you, but there is light also… so much light. I see death and life are not balanced for you. There are things around you that you cannot control, and someone you love dearly who you should not.”

At these last words Ari jerked away from Chiara.
Someone you love dearly who you should not
; did Chiara mean Ragon?

“You’re in love with one?” said Chiara, taking a sudden gasp. “Yet you are not a source?”

“I’m… well…” Ari stuttered, uncertain of what to say.

“You are the Grandor descendent and you love that which you must destroy,” said Chiara, looking at Ari with an almost pitying expression.

“I know, right!” said Chris, and both Chiara and Ari blinked up at him.

“But why me?” said Ari, ignoring Chris’s snide remark and staring dumbstruck at Chiara. “How do you know for sure that I am… a Grandor descendant?”

Ari felt as if she were falling down a bottomless pit. How could it be her responsibility to kill vampires? She was just a girl and… and she was in love with Ragon. It felt cruel to have spent so long trying to work out why she could do the things she could, only now to realise that she must use her gifts to kill the very thing she loved most in the world. Ari’s head felt light; how could this be happening? But if she really was the antagonist to vampires, did that mean that she couldn’t be with Ragon? What other strange anti-vampiric powers did she have that would put him at risk?