A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (7 page)

Chapter
5- Returned Favour

Ari woke in a cold sweat several hours later. An acrid burning smell had roused her and her eyes opened heavily, as if great weights weighed down each eyelid. She breathed in and coughed. Jumping up in horror, Ari realised what the smell was.

“Ragon,” she breathed, looking down at his singed body.

His normally handsome features were distorted. His hair was scorched and his clothes were patchy, as if acid had eaten through them. Some parts of his skin were blackened and in others, the normally smooth marble surface was blistered. He looked dead; there was no other word to describe it. Trying hard to think, Ari removed the black buttoned shirt he wore, pulling away the fabric as delicately as possible where it had melted against his skin. Though her hands were still bound, she cupped them together, placing them over his heart. There was no beat, no sound- nothing.

“Damn it,” she swore. 

Without thinking she began CPR. The chains around her wrists made it difficult, but she managed to intertwine her fingers and perform the necessary compressions against his chest. His stone body made trying to revive him challenging, as if she were pressing down on a block of ice. Quickly the effort became too much and in frustration she bit down hard on her lower lip and tasted blood.

She wasn’t sure how long it had been before she realised her actions were superfluous. Ragon was a vampire; did they even have a heartbeat? Did they need oxygen? When the muscles in her arms began to spasm from the effort, she finally stopped. Her bound hands dropped uselessly in front of her and she collapsed back on the floor next to Ragon.

This is bullshit,
Ari thought.

Ragon had rescued her
and now he was dead. The man who she had glanced at a thousand times during her study sessions in the library had died saving her. Pulling her knees up, she tucked them up under her chin and laid down so that her head was rested on Ragon’s shoulder, her blue eyes staring into his empty ones. No longer were his eyes a startling green; now they had been replaced with the all-consuming blackness of his pupils. As she began breathing deeply, fighting back the tears, a desire washed over her. She reached up quickly, using her legs to kick her upright as she placed her bound wrists against his cheeks. Llooking at him sadly, she leant down and kissed him on the forehead. It was not the kiss she had imagined from all her time day dreaming about him at the library, and she knew that she should be disgusted, but she couldn’t help it. 

“I’m sorry,” she cried, using all her effort to lift her hands so as to close his eyes with her fingers tips.

As she made to pull her hands back, she felt a vice-like grip on her wrist. Her heart sung in her chest just as a smile spread across her face; Ragon was alive. But her joy faltered when she looked down and saw that Ragon’s eyes were wide open and his fangs were poised to strike.

“No,” she screamed.

But Ragon seemed not to hear her, and Ari cried out again when she felt two sharp stabs as he punched through her soft skin. She watched in horror as a thin smile spread across Ragon’s lips and he began to suck hard on her wrist, thick blood trickled from his mouth.

“Please,” she screamed, and Ragon’s eyes opened wide before he suddenly ripped her arm out of his mouth, so ferociously that she felt her skin tear against his sharp fangs.

“Get away!” he gasped, Ari’s red blood dripping from the side of his mouth.

Ari’s half closed eyes were fixed on Ragon and her
mouth was open in horror. She was in too much shock to flinch when he reached for his burnt shirt and tore it into strips, winding several pieces around the bite on her arm.

“What can I do?” he asked helplessly.

Ari sat on the floor shivering, rocking back and forth, her bound hands holding her knees up to her chin again. Ragon made to move towards her and she flinched; in response his eyes widened.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, just as he scooped her up
, carrying her towards the bathroom in her room.

Ari didn’t jerk away when Ragon lifted her but became limp as she accepted her fate; she had no more energy to fight. No longer did she see the boy she had dreamt of- now there was only the monster. 

Once inside the bathroom, Ragon turned the shower on, quickly checking the temperature before moving under the water, Ari still cradled in his arms. Gently the water soaked into the pair’s clothes and Ragon leaned against the shower wall, slowly dropping to the white tiled floor as he continued to cradle Ari in his arms. The water ran dark with blood and dirt; billowing steam whirled around Ragon’s frozen body, like wind gently moving an early morning mist. Finally Ragon’s eyes fell on the chains still fastened around Ari’s wrist and throat. Moving very slowly, he freed her hands with a simply tug against the metal, so that the broken links clattered onto the shower floor. More carefully his hands reached for the metal collar, gently wrapping his fingers so they were underneath it, until the choker broke. Ari felt the pain against her already swollen neck, but still she did not cry out.  

It was at least half an hour before Ari spoke. She felt numb, remembering how Ragon had told Kiara that she meant nothing; how he hadn’t had a chance to bite her.

“Why?” she asked, her voice shaky as she looked up at him for the first time, staring into his green eyes.

“I am a monster. I’m so sorry,” Ragon replied simply, not daring to look at her.

Ari didn’t respond but moved to sit opposite him, so that she was no longer in his arms. He didn’t fight her but sat numbly with his eyes lowered to the floor. Ari’s hands made to touch the roughly made bandage on her wrist, when suddenly she realised that she was still only wearing a bra and underwear. Instantly her knees were drawn up to her chest as she tried to cover herself.

“You needn’t be embarrassed,” said Ragon.

“I’m practically naked,” Ari exaggerated, “and you’re… you’re fully clothed,” she stammered.

“I could remove more if you would prefer,” he said, but there was no trace of a smile.

At the mention of his lack of clothing, Ari looked across at his body; where before there had been huge gashes and holes in his burnt skin, now it was once again flawless, though the intense white of the bathroom tiles gave him an almost greyish pallor. Unable to stop herself, Ari’s eyes locked onto his toned muscles, as images of him rescuing her popped into her head.
No, she thought, she shouldn’t think like that; it wasn’t right.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispered, shaking her head slowly.

“I am,” Ragon replied quickly, a small smile tracing his lips.

“No I mean, I thought you were gone; you
had no heart beat and no pulse.”

“You should be so l
ucky. How is your arm?” he said, clearly wanting to change the subject. “I’m so sorry. It was the sun; it drained me... I would never have attacked you otherwise, although I know that doesn’t change the fact that I did.”

Ari laughed a little before looking down at the rough bandage on her wrist. Torn flesh was just visible, as were purpling bruises
that braceleted her wrists.

“Actually, it doesn’t really hurt anymore,” she lied.

“It’s the venom; it takes away the pain… temporarily anyway. That way our prey can’t err… escape.”

“Convenient. So when you bite someone they don’t feel it?”

The moment she spoke a vivid flashback of him attacking her popped into her head just as an uncontrollable shiver ran down her spine. At the same time she wondered why, if vampire toxin was supposed to take away pain, did it still hurt her so much?

“Yes. We bite a mortal and they lose their flight and fight response, among other things,” Ragon replied.

“Other things; like what?”

Ragon looked decidedly uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going, but then glancing down at her bandaged wrist
, said, “The venom also allows us to control our victims… for a time.”

At these words Ari thought of Paige; the girl who had sacrificed herself so that Matthew could regain his strength. Was this happening to her now? Was that why she had saved Ragon? But then she rememb
ered she had dragged him inside well before he had bitten her. But why had she saved him? The fact that she could be controlled by a vampire would have explained perfectly why she had tried to help him. Ari shook her head in confusion.

“You can control me?” she said weakly, her mind reeling with the implications.

“No I can’t! Well I could… but I wouldn’t. I bit you out of instinct; I had lost too much blood and I couldn’t help myself, but controlling you is my choice and I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“B
ut if you could control me, you could make me forget you ever attacked me?” she said slowly, instantly regretting her words “You could make me forget all of this, and… and you said to Kiara that you were planning on… planning on doing that anyway.” 

“It was tempting, but I won’t take away your free will; I will have to live with what I have done… we both will.
Besides, I told Kiara that so she wouldn’t think that-”

But his words broke off; wouldn’t think what, Ari thought.

“What do you mean?” she asked nervously.

Ragon looked upset for a moment, but recovering quickly, said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Ari looked down. She was so confused and too scared to think properly. Everything that Ragon was telling her made sense and yet it was utterly unbelievable. The fact that vampires were real was one thing, but the thought that they could invade her mind and control it was, well, frankly scaring the shit out of her. What if Ragon was controlling her right now? Making her think that she had rescued him before he had bitten her? And why didn’t Ragon want to hurt her?  

“You said you could control me for a time?” she asked, pushing away this thought. 

“That’s true, I said I could, but I also said I wouldn’t.”

“I mean, how long does the venom last?” she asked.

“It depends on the age of the vampire; for me usually about 7 days.”

“And how does it work- the controlling part?” she asked.

“There’s a neurotoxin in our venom which acts on a human’s nervous system. For a certain amount time, which depends on how strong the vampire is, the vampire has the power to bend them to their will. Then the mortal has to do everything they are told. It’s kind of like their mind becomes an extension of the vampires.”

“Bend them to their will?” Ari asked curiously.
“So that’s what Kiara meant, that’s why she was looking for bites on me. She expected you to do that to me?”

“So man
y questions!” said Ragon. “When I bite someone, I don’t know… I can feel their blood racing through my system, restoring my immortality. At the same time I can feel my venom coursing through my… victim’s blood, binding to their neurons. And, I don’t know how to describe it; it’s like they become a part of you; under your control,” he said. “All we need to do is think a command and the source must do it.”

“Source?” asked Ari.

“It’s what we call a human who we feed from.”

“Is that why Paige…” Ari began to say, but her voice trailed off, remembering the girl’s still body on the floor of that concrete dungeon.

Ragon nodded solemnly.

“She wouldn’t have had a choice. Kiara and Matthew probably shared the control of her mind; it would have been the easiest thing in the world to get her to-” said Ragon, before Ari quickly interrupted him.

“So how often do you need to um, feed?”

“It depends on how much we take from our victim and how reckless we are,” replied Ragon.

“Reckless?”

“Yea like playing in the sun, or smashing through fortified iron bars- stuff like that,” he said smiling.

Another few moments passed in silence. Ari watched mesmerised, as drops of water cascaded majestically down Ragon’s body, almost as if he were a marble waterfall. Somehow watching him made her feel peaceful. Despite everything that she had been through, there was something reassuring about being close to him so that slowly she began to replace the monster with the boy she had dotted on, for all those years.

“I am sorry,” Ragon said again, interrupting Ari’s thoughts.

Ari raised her gaze from his abdomen and asked, “Why did they take me?”

“To hurt me; Kiara made me and she wants to own me. Decades ago I left her; I think that the thought of my being happy has offended her.”

He was happy? What did he mean? Was he happy with her? But they weren’t
even together. He had saved her and then he had been stuck with her.

“So,” said Ari, “Kiara made you? And that’s why she took me; to get back at you for leaving her?”

“Yes.”

“How did it happen? When did you become a vampire?” she asked.

Ragon took a deep breath and exhaled. 

“It was 1815 and I
was a soldier. Napoleon’s War against the kingdoms had bought him many enemies, and many nations rallied to bring about his end of tyranny. Fourteen countries had risen against Napoleon and the first French Empire. Though the war had been coined the
hundred day battle,
I didn’t live past the first two months. It was, as far as I can remember, a relatively painless death. One moment I was charging at the enemy and the next I was lying in a ditch. No one could have told you how long I was dying for. I was unconscious and almost dead when I felt a stabbing pain in my neck. I came to and saw a woman leant over me. I don’t know why she decided not to kill me. When I awoke the next night I was a vampire. For a time I followed her but…” he said, his voice suddenly trailing off.