Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (31 page)

“Ari!” said Ragon, racing to her side. “What is it? Are you hurt?”

Ari looked down in horror at her hand, flipping it over so that her palm was face up. It burnt red hot, as if someone had pressed a brand to her skin, and she saw with a pang of terror, that a symbol had begun to glow there, etched into her flesh.

“It’s the same symbol,” said Ari, holding her hand out so that Lea and Ragon could see.

Lea and Ragon looked down at Ari’s palm. Now the symbol had turned black; thick lines curled the full length of her palm, resembling a gothic sun. In the centre of the sun was a strange circle. It twisted on itself, making it difficult to discern where it started and ended, appearing almost as if the lines it formed could not end. Dotted around it were four stars, one of which held a slightly greenish hue.

“But,” said Lea, her mouth open and her eyes wide, “that, that must be your family crest, the Grandor family crest. Whenever I perform magic, really powerful magic, my family crest appears on my palm. It means that you are drawing from your ancestors powers. And you said you have seen this before?”

Ari nodded and said, “Yea, when I was at your grans house and she was telling me about the Grandor Descendant, and then again when Ragon and I were called to trial by James Frater.”

“What does it mean?” asked Ragon, looking at Ari, his face lined with worry.

Eagerly Ari tore the book open, glancing for only a moment at the front cover. It was an old heavy book, it’s binding and cover made from some sort of dipped leather, where the words ‘Known Immortals’ was etched on the front. Ari flipped through the first few pages, until finally she saw the symbol of the gothic sun. Looking down at her hand, so as to compare the two, Ari gasped; the image on her hand had disappeared.

“It’s gone,” she said, showing her palm to the others, “but it looked exactly like this,” she added, holding out the image in the book so that Lea and Ragon could see.

Placing the book open on the desk, Ari began to read, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Ragon and Lea did the same.

Legend speaks of an immortal, born before the birth of vampires, witches, wraiths and waeres; an immortal whose powers were imbued to him, not brought about by curses, infliction or family lines. From this immortal, all other immortals came, nestled and thrown into this world from the loneliness of more than a thousand generations of solitude. For the first immortal was, and will always be, the only true immortal. This gift, the gift of living forever and being unsusceptible to mortality, cannot be duplicated, though vampires with their unnatural life force try, they are still subject to the light. For in nature all things must come to an end, all things but Grandor.

So consumed with the curse of living forever alone, the first immortal took from himself, and fashioned beings that might comfort him throughout the ages. Centuries ago, Grandor had allowed himself to love but had committed this first true love to the ground, and so he took from himself his heart, and placed it with hers. But she was already dead, long dead and though his heart was a powerful magical thing, it could not grant her immortal life, only a second chance at life. In time it was obvious that the humanity inside her was not complete, and more than life she clung to death and the grave she had been for so long. And so she became the first wraith- Narsissa, with greater affinity for death than life.

Unable to bond with his wife whom he loved, the immortal next decided to make another being, this one not a partner but a child. Already without his heart, he took his blood and in the dead of night drained himself of every drop. Placing this blood into a spelled chalice, he made a child. The child was not like any other. For one it grew fast, growing and growing until one day, mere months after its creation, it looked just like an adult and stopped aging. Never again did the child grow, and so Grandor created the first vampire- Sabbine, only able to maintain the immortality of her father by consuming the life force of others by drinking their blood.

In time, though she had her mother and her father, Sabbine grew weary and lonely, condemned to the same faith as her father the immortal. When she fell in love with a man, Lyall, she did as she had always done and bit him, only just managing to stop before killing him. She took the man to her parents, begging them to save him. Lyall was almost dead, clutching to life with the few drops of blood he had left. The immortal Grandor had already given up his heart and his blood to create his family, and so he took from himself again, this time taking the only thing he had left to give- his soul. But it was not enough to keep the man alive, and so Narsissa used her wraith magic, taking not just the Grandor’s soul to bind the spell, but also the soul of thirteen animals. When Lyall arose, he was more than the man he had been; with the souls of the animals inside him he became the first waere, capable of taking on the form of the animals, in whose soul he shared.

And so, Grandor, the first witch and immortal, brought into this world all the beings of magic- the wraith his wife Narsissa, the vampire his daughter Sabbine, and finally Lyall the waere, his son-in-law. All are tied together, all bound by Grandor.            

When Ari had read the last words, she looked up at Lea and Ragon. Both were frowning, their eyes oddly dazed as they considered the text.

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Ragon. “Surely it’s just a story!”

Lea, who was shaking her head in confusion, looked from the book and Ari, her eyebrows furrowed as she said, “What we need… is to do a séance.”

“Excuse me?” said Ragon, looking sceptically at Lea. “As in using a Ouiji board? Isn’t it a little late to be playing games?”  

“Yea, isn’t that something you do when you’re like twelve at sleepovers?” said Ari.

“It’s not playing and it’s not a game!” said Lea. “With a séance we can contact those who have passed over. You said that you needed to find out how to control your magic. Who better to ask than your ancestor, Grandor? But we would need a circle of thirteen witches and-”

“-but there is only twelve of you,” Ragon pointed out quickly. “With Emily missing, you don’t have a full circle.”

“Not if you count Ari,” said Lea.

“But, don’t you remember what Chris’s dad said? He told us that my magic wasn’t good or evil,” said Ari.

“For a séance it doesn’t have to be good or evil, you just need to have magic,” Lea explained. “And we will also need someone to contact the other side, a wraith. We will need Chris.”

Both Ari and Ragon looked at each other nervously. Neither had spoken to Chris at all since he had attacked Ragon, not unless you counted the letter which Ari had written to him when she thought she and Ragon would have to leave the Pasteur Institute.

“What’s wrong?” Lea asked, seeing the concerned look the pair shared.

“Um, Chris,” said Ari, trying to choose her words carefully; they had not told Lea what Chris had done. “Chris might be a problem. I don’t know if he will help.”

“What, why?” asked Lea.

“Because,” said Ragon, snarling low under his breath, “the last time we spoke to him he attacked us.”

Ragon delved into the story of his fight with Chris. He left out certain unpleasant facts, not mentioning that Ari had kissed Chris, or that Chris had been a half-bloody mess when he had fought back.

When Ragon had finished recapping the incident, Lea looked pale and said, “What! I can’t believe he would do that.”

“Yea,” Ari admitted, “I don’t think he meant to, but, I sort of haven’t spoken to him since.”

“Well, we can’t do it without him and we don’t know any other friendly wraiths-” said Lea.

“-friendly?” asked Ragon, curiously. “If by friendly you mean an ass-”

“-maybe I should talk to him,” Lea suggested.

“No,” Ari said quickly, ignoring the perturbed look on Ragon’s face. “I should be the one to talk to him. I need to make things right between us.”

Ragon had refused point blank to let Ari go alone to see Chris. Ari had been certain that Chris would not talk to her or help them if Ragon came, and only managed to convince Ragon that she would be safe, by reminding him that she could stop time if anything happened, which she assured him would not.

“Ok,” said Lea, reaching for her phone, “I will contact the circle and Ari, you can go and speak with Chris. We will all meet down at the Omega halls common room. I doubt anyone will be there this late. Ragon, can you check to make sure that it is empty?”

With a final wistful look at Ari, Ragon left. Ari was just about to follow him outside when Lea grabbed her by the arm.

“Be careful around Chris,” she said. “I know that you said that Chris didn’t mean to hurt you, but he is a wraith. That being said, I have never heard of a wraith, or anyone, with that sort of power over vampires.”

Ari nodded and made her way down the corridor, finally pausing in front of Chris’s room. She took in a deep breath and knocked once then waited.

“Perry, if this is your idea of midnight drinking hour then you are-” Chris stopped speaking the moment he had swung his door open.

He looked surprised, even angry, and Ari realised with a pang that he was shirtless. Why did he never seem to have a shirt on whenever she was around him?

“Oh, Ari,” he said, still standing in the door, his face set grimly. “What’s up?”

Ari breathed out a sigh of relief. He was talking to her; that was a good start.

“Chris, I um, I need your help,” she admitted. “I know things haven’t been exactly the best between us but-”

Chris slammed the door in her face and Ari jumped back in surprise. She should have been expecting that. With her head hung low, she turned around slowly and made her way down the corridor; so much for her plan to contact Grandor and find out about her stupid powers. She had barely made it three feet away when Chris’s voice called to her and she spun around, looking hopeful.

“Did you mean what you wrote?” he asked, and Ari saw that now, clutched in his hands, was the letter she had written him.

Ari nodded slowly and Chris opened the note. He did not look down at it as he read it aloud, clearly having committed it to heart.

“
Chris, I am sorry for everything that has happened between us. Toying with your emotions was cruel and I never meant to hurt you. I’m leaving with Ragon today. The vampire student council has found out about Gwen and so we are back on the run. I just want you to know that what happened the other night, when you were defending yourself against Ragon, was an accident. I know it wasn’t you who did that, but the part of you that you can’t control- your wraith-half. I know what it feels like to have power inside which you don’t understand… power that can burst from you and hurt the people you care for. I don’t know if I will ever see you again but I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think you’re evil. You are good. In fact, you’re one of the kindest people I have ever met. Please don’t think anything else of yourself. And please don’t let your fear stop you from trying to be the person I think you really, truly, want to be. Ari” 
  

As Chris spoke, Ari felt tears well in her eyes.

“You meant it?” he asked, and Ari nodded again, brushing away the tears that were sliding down her cheek. “Of course I will help you, even if it is before the crack of dawn.”

After that Chris and Ari walked in silence to the Omega halls common room. It was early morning and the room was deserted, all except for Ragon, who glared at Chris as he walked inside but did not speak to him. After that, one by one, each of Lea’s circle members made their way into the room. Some were wearing pyjamas, others were fully dressed, but all of them looked sleepy. When the last girl entered the room, Lea moved over to the door and locked it. She whispered something under her breath and a light shimmering glow encased the door.