A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (20 page)

Ari thought for a moment, her mind recalling the delicious meals that she had seen being served to the couples in the booths below.

Yes she was hungry, but she felt uneasy at the thought of eating while her Ragon sat and watched, and so she replied, “No, not really.”

Ragon seemed satisfied and moved his chai
r a little closer to hers, almost as if he were going to tell her something.    

“Would you like to get closer?”
asked Ragon.

Ari snorted in response, some of th
e champagne forcing its way down the wrong hole, as she coughed loudly, while a few drops of carbonated liquid spilled from her nose.

“Wh… what?” she blurted, quickly retrieving the napkin besides her and dabbing at her
face.

“To the stars,”
said Ragon, indicating a large telescope off to the side.

To the stars
- of course to the stars, Ari thought to herself.

Ragon moved over to the large telescope and sat in one of the chairs, while Ari
placed herself next to him. For a moment he fiddled with the focus, and then finally pulled a constellation into focus.

“Do you know much about
astronomy?” he asked.

“No not really,” she replied.

Ari loved the stars and the moon; there was something sensual and romantic about them. Yet she had never taken the time to research them, or to learn the names of the twinkling lights that shone down on her every night. As she looked through the telescope at the constellation Ragon had bought into focus, she lamented this fact. There was so much that she didn’t know; so many things in heaven and hell, more than she might ever have thought possible. Didn’t knowing Ragon prove this? He was a vampire, a walking, talking, breathing, well maybe not breathing, but a constant reminder of just how mysterious the world she lived in was. If blood drinking night creatures were real, what else might be out there? Suddenly the conversation she’d had with Larissa and Sandra flashed back to her. Weres, witches, wraiths and blood hunters- that’s what was out there… and who knew what else?

“Would you like me to tell you about one?” asked Ragon
, pulling a laminated manual that sat next to the telescope, closer for examination.

Ari nodded for a moment, then realising that Ragon was
concentrating on the star guide, said, “Yes.”

Ragon flip
ped through the small book, searching, until his eyes widened and he moved back to the telescope. Carefully he adjusted the fine focus of the telescope, until four stars were perfectly in view.

“
It says that this is the constellation Grandor. Grandor was the father of two lovely daughters, whose beauty was so great so as to challenge Aphrodite herself. Hearing of the girls, a jealous demon known as Sabine cursed the women. She gave each daughter a power so terrible, that they would never be able to find a love that would accept them. The two stars shine brightly next to their father’s; the only man that could love them, for they were unable to be united with their soul mates”  

Looking through the narrow scope, Ari saw
two smaller stars all focused around a larger central one. The stars were beautiful, each shining brightly in their own unique way, and adorned by the central star whose glow though bright, were no match for theirs. Just off to the side of this was another large star; she guessed this was the star called Sabine.

“Every
ninety years or so, the star Sabine shines green, a phenomena which continues to baffle astronomers, who until recently, claimed that light reflection needed to create a green star was impossible. The reason for the change in this star is unknown as is the unusual time pattern the change in colour occurs from. Astrologists write that it reflects the jealousy Sabine felt towards the two Grandor daughters,” said Ragon.

“That’s sad,” said Ari.

The pair looked at a few more constellations, before returning to their table. Apart from initially touching the small of her back, Ragon had made no intimate gesture, and Ari was beginning to wonder the purpose of their
date
.

“Can I ask you something,” she said, before taking a large gulp of champagne, hoping to boost her confidence. “Why did you ask me out?”

Ragon’s mouth fell open; clearly he had not expected that question.

“
Well, I gather from Sandra that this was how it was done,” he said.

“No…” Ari said laughing. “I mean, why did you ask me out now? It’s just… the night you saved me. Well, I had seen you before.”

Ragon stood up so quickly that his chair overturned.

“What?” Ragon asked.

“Yea,” said Ari, surprised by his reaction. “I mean… I went to the library almost every other night, studying. And, I always use to see you there,” she admitted. “So I was just wondering, I mean, you never spoke to me, or even seemed to notice me…”

Ragon’s face relaxed.

“I noticed you,” he said, moving closer to her, so that they were only an inch apart.

Looking up at Ragon’s eyes, Ari lost all thoughts. Only her desires to be with him played any role in her mind, and she leaned in just a fraction of a centimetre closer.
With her eyes closed, she felt Ragon reach down and place both his hands on either side of her face, cupping her cheeks. Pulling her closer to him, he kissed her. It was a longing kiss, which Ari returned enthusiastically. Their tongues danced in each other’s mouths, caressing each other adoringly. Ari wasn’t sure how long the kiss lasted; all she knew was that she didn’t want it to end. Ragon had removed his hands from her face and placed them behind her back, urging her forwards. Reaching up, Ari locked her hands around his neck, pulling his hair slightly, in a desperate attempt to drag him even closer. Never before had she had a kiss like this; never had her core been so struck that she felt weightless and absent to her surrounds. Feeling Ragon pull away, Ari flinched.

When Ari opened her eyes, Ragon was looking down at her, his face struck with horror, but before he could speak Ari interrupted, saying, “Wait, I need to know something. Before… when you were with Kiara, what were you like?”

Ragon stopped holding Ari instantly, his hands falling purposelessly at his sides. His gloomy eyes, which had only moments ago been so contented, locked onto Ari’s in misery.

“She created me,” said Ragon, moving back to the table, retrieving his chair and sitting down, “and I did whatever she wanted. It doesn’t make it right but-”

Ari cut him off asking, “Does that include murdering fat stock brokers?”

Empowered by the alcohol, she had spoken her mind so freely that she forgot to conceal that she had read his diary. Her few choice words had made this painfully obvious.

Instantly Ragon was on his feet again, leering down at her.

“How much did you read?” he said, his eyes searching hers.

“Just the first page,” she said cowering, and Ragon breathed a sigh of relief.

“It was a time in my past that I am not proud of. I was a young vampire
, and blood was the closest thing I could get to happiness; so I took it. So now you know,” he said.

“know- know what?”

“That I am a monster; why did you come here tonight?” he asked.

“I wanted to know;
I needed to know who you are,” she replied.

“And so now you
do,” he said sadly, “the diary was mine; my hands wrote it.”

“
Yea a century ago, but… but you aren’t the same. Please tell me; I am so confused about all of this. I don’t know any better,” she said sadly. “It’s always someone else who tells me about your world and what it all means. All I want is to talk to you; for you not to treat me like you’re stuck with me.”

“If you knew more
, you would hate me,” he said flatly.

“Maybe,” Ari replied, “but at least I wouldn’t sit here wondering
, what the hell is going on half the time. Do you know right now that there are ten bodies in the morgue and police are looking for their killers? Half of which you killed! You can’t just keep me away from everything I have ever known, and not expect me to ask questions. I want to know you; to know about what it is to be you. I can’t just be your pet for the rest of my life.”

“You think of yourself as my pet?”
asked Ragon, and when Ari didn’t respond he continued. “There are things in my past, things that I can’t change, but anything you ask me I will tell you. I will be honest; I won’t lie to you.” 

Now was her chance to find out everything she had ev
er wanted to know about him.

“Your diary,” Ari asked sheepishly. “Were you really that cruel?”

Ragon nodded simply, temporarily staring up at a wayward shooting star, which offered a suitable distraction from the look on Ari’s face.

“So why not stay with Kiara; why not continue the life you were living?”

“Because she did something, something that let me see what a monster she was,” said Ragon, suddenly looking down at his feet.

“What?” Ari asked curiously.

Ragon paused, apparently undecided if he should answer, but then said, “In the early 1930’s I left her, and lived with Sandra, Thomas, Larissa and Cambridge for a time. For decades I did not speak to Kiara, nor did I seek her out. She was my maker, and so she could sense where I was, and followed me every time I tried to escape her to another a city. Then one night, by chance, many decades later, I came across her again. She had just killed two people, and realised that there was a small child with them. She made to take the youngster but I stopped her. I though perhaps she had killed the parents because she had remembered how I craved humanity and wanted to keep the child. I think she thought that somehow it could make us whole once more- like a family,” said Ragon.

“And that didn’t work?” asked Ari, hanging on Ragon’s every word.

“No. It was probably the only thing that she could have done to ensure I hated her forever.”

Ari nodded slowly.

“Can I ask you a question?” asked Ragon, and without waiting for a reply, said, “What do you remember about your parents?”

Ari blinked a few times at this question. It was so far from anything she might have expected, that she found herself speechless.

After hesitating for a moment she said, “I suppose it’s only fair that I answer your invasive question, after you have answered mine.” She sighed and added, “I don’t know what happened to my parents, no one does. I grew up in an orphanage and I spent the first eighteen years of my life, jumping from family to family, and going to god knows how many different schools, all while living out of a garbage bag.”

“You weren’t adopted?”

Ari shook her head.

“For a while I was with a family that I thought might take me in; Ryder, the guy who Patrick took a liking to the other night, he became like a brother to me, but after a few months they turned me away. When I turned eighteen I moved into my own place and applied for college,” she said. 

Ragon looked down at the table. Ari didn’t find the conversation involving her parent’s particularly enjoyable, although it wasn’t the first time, in the last little while, that she had been reminded of her past. When she had heard the news story on the television, reporting that the orphanage she had been raised in had burnt down, it had been yet another painful reminder of the fact that she had no parents. The truth was that if she stopped and thought about them for too long, it upset her. Their lives, what had happened to them, why they had abandoned her; and so many other questions like that, were a complete mystery. When Ari was old enough to ask the foster families who had taken her in, what had happened to them, they all told her the same thing. She had been dumped on the doorstep of an adoption centre when she was about two.

Thinking of changing the subject, Ari asked,
“How do you become a vampire?”

“I
t’s relatively simple actually. Any mortal at the point of death can be changed, although it doesn’t work every time. Sometimes, for whatever reason, vampirism doesn’t take. To be changed a mortal must be so close to death that only becoming a vampire can save them. Basically they must be dying; a run of the mill flu isn’t going to cut it. And because the mortal must be close to death, then if the vampirism doesn’t take, they are likely to die, which is probably why so many losses ensue.”

Ari considered his words, “So anyone can become a vampire?” she asked.

Ragon nodded and said, “Although few would choose it if they knew the cost.”

“You mean having to drink blood?”

“Yes that, and the other requirements of immortality,” he said, and seeing Ari’s curious look, added, “such as intolerance to sun, and having to remain in the shadows for all eternity, as well as the inevitable loss of humanity. Besides, many vampires do not take on fledglings because of the risks involved.”

“Risks?”

“Creating a line of vampires comes with a risk,” said Ragon. “Every time a new vampire is created, a blood line forms. It is a watered down version of the original vampire’s power. This is why older vampires are more powerful. The risk of one’s fledgling becoming a blood hunter deters most vampires from creating others.”