A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (31 page)

Ari was shaking a little
; the rain had soaked through her clothes and this combined with the smell of burnt wood from the Grace Valley Orphanage, made her feel miserable.

She was breathing very fast when she
said “But he had a knife, I thought-”

“I’m a vampire Ari; he might as well have been wielding a rubber chicken for all th
e good it would have done him,” said Thomas. When Ari didn’t reply right away, he looked up at her from behind the steering wheel and growled, saying, “I didn’t mean to kill him. He was a drug dealer; I was pretending to buy some stuff off him, and then he jumped me...”

Ari let Thomas’s sentence trail off, deciding it would be best not to
ask any more questions.

It was only when the pair was pulling into the driveway that Thomas spoke again.

“Ragon is goi
ng to kill me when he finds out,” he said.

As soon as they
walked inside, it was apparent that the other vampires had not yet returned; even Patrick and Ryder were nowhere to be seen.

Ari was just about to ask w
here the hell they had gone, when Thomas looked at her and said, “Ryder is upstairs.”

“
But… how do you know?” she asked curiously.

“I can hear him
.”

“
What… how?”

“I can hear Ryder’s
heart; Crystal is on the veranda and you, well… you’re next to me,” he said.

Ari
nodded slowly, rolling her eyes at the obvious answer. After a moment Thomas moved over to the veranda door, opened it and walked out onto the balcony. Unable to think of what else to do, Ari followed, watching him peer up at the moon. It was early in the morning, and judging by the lighting of the sky at the horizon, the sun would be rising in a few hours. Thomas grasped tightly on the railings, his fingers locking around the metal rim so that it indenting slightly.

“So are we going to talk about what happened tonight?” asked
Ari, as the pair continued to look out over the veranda and into the valley below.

Thomas did not turn ar
ound, but hung his head and said, “I killed a man; what more is there to say?”

Ari was surprised by his statement
and said, “No, I meant are we going to tell Ragon and the others about what happened?”

At
this Thomas turned to face her. There was a mingled look of shock and disbelief on his face.

“
All life, even that of a drug dealer is sacred,” he said.

“I didn’t mean…” Ari began, but Thomas moved inside.

In the few minutes that the pair had stood outside, the
sky had lightened considerably. Deep blue light now shone through the forest in the distance, and from their nesting spots in the trees, birds had begun to chirp. Ari knew that it wouldn’t be long until the new day was upon them. Ari and Crystal followed Thomas inside; then six loud thumps sounded on the veranda.

As
Ari turned, she felt cool hands on her shoulder, just Ragon said, “I’m sorry we took so long.”

Ari smiled up at
him, letting him slide his hand into hers and pulled the curtains closed, blocking out the dawn.

“Sorry we cut it so short,”
said Sandra, sweeping over to Thomas who was dragging a chair over to the window. “Someone couldn’t make up their mind on what to have,” she added, taking a long incredulous look at Sameth.

Sameth shrugged but looked annoyed
, and quickly raced up to his bedroom, blurring past Ari so quickly that her dark hair flew across her face. Thomas, who was now sitting on the chair, looked up at his mate. Slowly he retrieved a long cylindrical rod from his pocket, while placing an old rag and a bottle of thick black liquid on the table. Ari looked curiously at the long thin rod, unsure of what to make of it. She was just about to ask what it was, when Thomas forced the rod through the wall, pushing it hard until it reached the outside of the house.

“Oh Jesus, what the hell happened tonight?”
asked Sandra, seeming to recognise the tools in Thomas’s hands.

Thomas didn’t respond, but reached into his jacket pocket and threw a wallet onto the table. Ari, who was still shocked that Thomas had driven a hole into the living room wall, recognis
ed the wallet instantly. It was the one he had taken from the man he’d killed. Sandra hesitated, sweeping a few strains of wayward red hair out of her face and reached down to pick up the leather wallet.

She flipped it open, stared at something for a moment
, then said, “I’m sorry honey.” 

Unlike Ari, Ragon seemed also to realise the significance of the wallet.

He stormed over to Sandra, took the wallet from her and looked at it incredulously, before rounding on Thomas and said, “What the hell have you been doing?”

Ari, who had not made up her mind if she was even going to tell Ragon about her and Thomas’s
outing
, now looked sheepishly down at her feet.

“You said you would watch her,” Ragon growled, throwing the wallet at Thomas.

“I never let her out of my sight,” he said, retrieving the driver’s license from within the wallet.

“You took her with you?”
roared Ragon. 

Before Thomas could answer, bright sunlight poured through the hole in the rod, leaving a very small pin prick sized beam of light in its wake. When Thomas began removing his shirt, Ari looked away, but not before a small cross penden
t on a long, thin silver chain, met her eyes. She had no idea what the hell was going on, but guessed by his catholic gestures in the alleyway, and the way he had referred to life as being sacred, that he was upset about having just killed someone. This thought was punctuated by a small scream which made her swerve around to face Thomas.

As Ari approached
him, she was horrified to see that the pin prick of sun light coming from the hollow rod was shining on his chest, so that it cut neatly through his flesh. He had positioned himself so that he was kneeling, with the sunlight acting as a laser, burning through skin and tissue. The smell of burnt stone assaulted her nostrils, and she instantly felt sick; why was he doing this to himself?

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, looking from Sandra
to Ragon, unable to understand why they weren’t stopping him.

Thomas smiled weakly up at her, and began moving the small rod rhythmically in the wall, so that a different part of his flesh began to
burn. A new scream from Thomas had Ari moving over to the wall, her hand stretched out to block the sunlight, but before she could reach the tiny beam that was doing so much damage, Ragon had stopped her.

“Leave him,” he said
in frustration, and Sandra nodded once in agreement.

For a few more minutes Thomas continued like this, moving the rod so that it burnt a different part in his chest and screaming out. Finally he fell to the floor, shivering and taking in small gasps of air. Ari knelt down beside him, her concerned eyes narrowed on the burnt area of flesh that were bubbling and smoking. Slowly Thomas’s shaking hand reached across to the rag and he poured the thick black liquid onto it, before clasping it to his panting chest. The moment the rag touched his skin, he shut his eyes, just as his face curled into a horrified expression.

“That’s enough love,”
said Sandra, quickly blurring over to the kitchen, wetting a tea towel and speeding back to her mate.  

Taking the tea towel in one hand, and lovingly removing the black rag, Sandra wiped it across his chest.
Thomas’s flesh sizzled as his burning skin met the cool liquid, and steam erupted from the wound. Then Sandra moved her wrist up to her mouth and bit into it quickly. In a second she was pressing the bleeding wound into Thomas’s mouth. Reluctantly Thomas took her hand and drank from it, and soon thick red blood spilled from his mouth.

Ari’s eyes widened in amazement as the wound on his chest
began to heal. Where before the skin had been blistered, now there was a small tattoo. Raking her eyes up and down his flesh, Ari realised that this was not the only tattoo, but that there were many others also, each of which was a name. With her mouth open in surprise, she realised that this was not the first time she had seen these tattoos; when they had been trying on Halloween costumes, she had glimpsed the list of names.

Ari read the newest words of a long list, and whispered, “Edward Jenkins.”

Thomas did not reply and unable to stop her curiosity, Ari scrolled through the rest of the names tattooed there. The first name she read was ‘Victoria Hardings’; her eyes widened when she reached a name that that she knew- Sandra Wood. Instantly she realised what the list on his chest signified- all the people Thomas had killed.

“I’m going to bed,”
said Ragon, taking a meaningful look at Ari.

Ari pulled her eyes away from
the artwork on Thomas’s body and followed suit.

Once inside her bedroom, Ragon rounded on her.

“How could you be so foolish?” he asked.

Ari’s eyes narrowed. So she was foolish?

“I am allowed to make decisions for myself you know,” she said angrily.

“Not if those decisions get you killed.”

“But I haven’t been killed
; I am fine, nothing happed,” she said, her heart racing as her cheeks blushed.

“Don’t,” Ragon said quickly, turning away from her.

“Don’t what?” she spat.

In an instant he was next to her, his hungry eyes rested on her uncertain ones, and one hand placed over her heart, “Don’t be afraid.”

“Afraid?” she asked. “I’m not afraid. I’m… angry.”

Ragon smiled, unable to stop himself and kissed her. For a moment Ari struggled but
quickly gave in, returning the kiss hungrily.

The pair was locked like this for a few m
oments, before Ragon pressed her hard against the bedroom wall and whispered, “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Does that include living?” she
asked sarcastically.

Ragon stopped kissing her and moved over to the bed.

“It’s just for a little while. Once you’re safe… once I know that there is no one after you-” he began to say.

“You’ll what? Disassociate me?” Ari scoffed.

Ari had been expecting Ragon to argue with her the instant she had said this, but he did not.

“What?” she asked.
“That’s… that’s what you’ll do?”

Ragon was no longer looking at her. His eyes had darted upstairs and he was frowning.

“Shit,” he said in a whisper, before racing to the bedroom door and throwing it open.

There was a soft growl and Crystal slunk into Ari’s bedroom. Ari wasn’t entirely surprised to see her. The dog had taken to sleeping outside Ari
’s bedroom whenever she had become sick of using the couch.

Loud thuds
on the staircase, told Ari where Ragon had gone and she raced upstairs after him.

“Patrick, so help me god, you had better open this door,” Ragon said loudly.

A few seconds of silence greeted this, during which Sameth, Sandra and Thomas emerged
from their rooms.

“What’s going on?”
asked Cambridge, when he and Larissa finally made it to the landing also.

“Didn’t you hear?”
asked Clyde.

Clyde was flanked outside his room
, wearing nothing but a pair of long track pants. He had one hand on the top of the door and a casual indifferent look on his face. For a few moments Ari stared at him, entranced by his perfect body, but then quickly looked away.

“Patrick,” Ragon yelled again.

Suddenly the door opened and Patrick, wiping blood away from his mouth, said, “What?”

“Oh Patrick, you didn’t?”
said Sandra.

Ari, fearing the worst, pushed past Ragon, knocking hard into Patrick and swe
eping into his room, where Ryder was laying on the bed, apparently asleep. She stared at him and then her eyes fell on the dark red blood that had stained the pillow his head was rested on. She inched closer, reaching out a shaky hand, trying desperately to avoid the two large puncture wounds, as she felt for a pulse- but there was nothing.

Patrick moved over to Ari and touched her on the shoulder saying, “He’s not dead…”

“Yea he is,” said Clyde, “well sort of,” he added, seeing the murderous look in Ari’s eyes. 

“He’s undergoing the transformation,”
said Patrick.

“That’s if he makes it,” Clyde said arrogantly.

“What?” asked Ari, her eyes open wide in fear as she turned to face Clyde, “what do you mean,
if he makes it
?”

When Clyde did
n’t answer, Ari turned to stare at Patrick, waiting. She wanted to scream at him, to hit him, anything to bring back the friend which was as close to a brother that she had ever known.