Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (39 page)

Lea and Chris nodded and the trio crept from Lea’s room, down the stairs and to where the surly vampire was still standing guard.

“Wait here,” said Ari, moving towards the vampire casually.

The moment he turned to face her, Ari thrust out her hands and stopped time. She smiled grimly at the frozen vampire and then called for Chris and Lea, who came rushing out of the hallway.

After that they ran towards Delta. Though there were still no lights on, Ari could just make out a line of people moving past the halls and towards the Farm. Ari could tell from their steady march and the absence of cries or screams that the people lined up must have been bitten and lulled. They looked like cattle being herded, oblivious to the fate which awaited them.

“Come on. Hurry up,” a cold man’s voice called. “Oi, you three, get in line,” he added, indicating Lea, Ari and Chris.

The trio stared around, unsure of what to do.

“Did you hear me?” the man yelled and blurred towards them.

“Sorry,” muttered Chris, racing towards the line and walking behind the last person.

Lea and Ari followed suit, walking at the end of the line. In front of them, Chris was drooling, his hands held dumbly by his side as he mimicked a zombie. Ari didn’t know if he was trying to be funny, or generally trying to impersonate what he thought a lulled person should look like. Either way, the vampire leading the pack did not become suspicious, and the trio continued to walk with the group of humans.  

When they reached the Farm, the vampire at the head of the line swiped an I.D card and the doors hissed open. After that the group fumbled along the corridor, all walking silently as they followed their leader.

“Right,” said the vampire, all of you line up in front of a door. “Someone will be by shortly.”

After that he bustled away, making his way to the large glass doors at the end of the hallway.

“Quickly,” said Chris, grabbing Lea and Ari’s hand and dragging them away.

Ari and Lea raced behind him. Ari looked back at the students that were all lined along the corridor. With a pang, she recognised Lisa. Lisa may have done everything in her power to make Ari’s life miserable, but she wouldn’t wish what was about to happen to her on anyone. Chris too it seemed had noticed Lisa. He made to move towards her, but before he had taken two steps, Lea shot a hand out to stop him.

“There’s nothing you can do,” said Lea. “She’s been lulled. If you want to help her then we have to stop this.”

Chris nodded grimly.

For a while the trio skulked inside the building, managing somehow not to be noticed as they searched for the coven. The security inside the Farm was minimal. Ari guessed this was probably because the vampires assumed everyone inside was already under their control. Finally, through a door halfway down the hall, they found a large room with several prison cells, all lined up next to each other. Ari recognised the cell doors immediately. They were made of silver and hawthorn and were exactly the same as the ones the Ancients had kept her in, back in their castle in Latvia. These cells were imbued with a magic that would prevent vampires from being able to escape them.

When Ari saw the odd bluish light of the cells, she broke into a run, certain that this must be where Ragon and the rest of the coven were being kept. She was barely halfway through the door, when she recognised the slumped figures of the coven, each one being kept in an individual cell. Her eyes scanned their faces, finally coming to a rest when two startling green eyes stared up at her, almost fearfully.

“Ragon,” Ari cried, collapsing onto the concrete floor, just outside his cell.

When Ragon looked up at her, Ari felt her heart scream in her chest. His face was bruised, his body bent, almost unnaturally, while dark blood had dried around his ears and nose.     

“Ari,” Ragon croaked.

Seeming to wake from a dream, Ragon reached out a shaking hand towards her. The second his fingertips brushed the hawthorn and silver door, his eyes widened, his mouth opening into a silent scream, and then his whole body jerked to the back of the cage.

“Are you alright?” asked Ari, thrusting her hand through the gaps of the door, trying to reach him.

Immediately his fingers wrapped around hers.

“We’ve been better,” said a small voice from the opposite prison, and Ari looked around to see Clyde.

“Clyde,” Ari said, “where’s Riley?”

Clyde’s face broke and he shook his head, looking down at the corner of his cell before locking eyes with Ari and saying, “I don’t know. After Lea told us about your vision we came here looking for you, but James caught us. He threw us in here. He said that the Ancients were coming.”

“Ragon, they’ve taken over the entire campus,” said Ari, “all those missing students… they’re upstairs, hooked up to tubes so that the vamps can collect their blood.”

“Jesus,” said another voice, and Ari cocked her head to see Thomas, slumped in the corner of his cell.

Opposite him was Sandra. She was sprawled out on the floor, her strawberry blonde hair flayed out on the stone below. She didn’t move at all, not a muscle, and for one horrible moment, Ari feared the worst.

“Sandra… is she…” Ari said, unable to finish her sentence.

“Unconscious,” said Thomas, his voice worried. “When Clyde asked where Riley was, James said that she was a prisoner and Sandra attacked him.”

Clyde let out a whimper and Ari’s eyes darted sympathetically towards him.

“We looked for her upstairs,” said Chris, “but we couldn’t see Riley anywhere. Do you know where they are keeping her?”

The sound of a door slamming filled the room and Ari held her breath as an icy cold voice spoke.

“Oh, she is just fine… for now,” the man said.

Ari moved to face the person who spoke and saw with a pang of surprise that it was James Frater.

“Why have you come here?” he asked, his eyes locked on Ari.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

James did not answer at first. Rather he clicked his fingers and two vampires entered the room, blurring to clasp hold of Chris and Lea. The pair fought against their attackers but it was futile; within seconds they had been restrained, their hands held behind their back, while their necks were pressed at angles, where fangs dripping with saliva were waiting if they attempted to escape.

“Please don’t try to resist us,” said James, pointing a lazy finger at Ragon as he added, “or I will kill him. And don’t bother trying your little solar trick… I won’t be affected by it; all you would do is put Ragon out of his misery.”

Ari glared at James. She had never felt hatred this powerful before. Inside she felt her blood begin to boil, her brow breaking into a cold sweat as her lips trembled. But James was right. Even if she did burst into sunlight right now, what good would that do? Ragon and the rest of the coven would be killed.

“Come with me Ariana Sol,” James added. “The Ancients wish to speak with you.”

Chapter 18- Waere Persecutions Explained
              

After that she, Chris and Lea were directed back into the corridor, James Frater leading the way. The two vampires had brought Ragon with them; they had attached a crude metal chain to his neck, which they used to pull him along the corridor. Ari heard the metal clash against the stone but was helpless to do anything about it. She could feel James’s eyes on her, watching for a reaction to Ragon’s suffering.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Ari. “You’re not a vampire… why are you aligning yourself with them?”

“They are my family,” said James.

“Your, your family?” asked Ari, her voice disgusted. “Monsters like the Ancients don’t have family. They have servants. You are nothing but a puppet to them.”

In response James merely shrugged, and gestured for the group to follow him into a large room. The moment she walked into the room, Ari smelt a damp rotting odour and looked up to see a sea of vampires, all seated on chairs, as though they were students attending a lecture. In the crowd was Gwen and Gerald, sitting at the front, and there were several other vampires there that Ari recognise, all students from Cruor halls. In front of the mass of vampires was a stage with a podium on it, and beyond this were three chairs. Every eye in the room was focused on the three beings sitting in these chairs. They were young, young a perfect. Two of them had bright red hair and bright eyes, while the third looked almost mundane, with his brown hair. Ari felt her heart race when she realised that it was the Ancients that everyone watched; Lace and her brothers Joseph and Virgil.

“Ariana Sol,” said Lace, and there were equal measures of hatred and malice in her voice, that sent shivers down Ari’s spine, “so good of you to join us.”

Ari made to throw her hands up to stop time, but was distracted by James, who walked in front of her, shaking his head as he said, “Please don’t fight against me. I would hate to have to kill Ragon.”

Ari felt her hands fall to her sides and James took a step back, apparently satisfied.

“You have, I trust, witnessed our taking of the Pasteur Institute,” said joseph, his voice just as cool as his twin sisters.

“But why?” asked Ari, “Why kidnap the students? Why keep them in glass cages when they could walk around as sources? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Ah,” said Lace, “but you don’t understand at all. The humans who are enrolled in the Farm are not kept as sources at all, at least, not conventional sources.”

“But I saw them. They’re hooked up to a machine and there were tubes coming from them… tubes which collected their blood,” said Ari.

“True,” said joseph, “we are collecting blood from the humans, but not for the reason you thinks.”

“Then what?” asked Lea, “You can hardly expect all the vampires to follow behind you, and when the rest of the world finds out… the witches will stop you, not to mention-”

“-ah the little witch,” Lace said quickly, smiling sickly sweet at Lea. “Such brave words, and yet you have no circle, you are all alone. Where are your witches now?”

“She’s not alone,” said Chris, and Joseph and Virgil laughed, the sound of their mirth dancing off the stone walls eerily.

“The half cast is here to save the day,” said Lace, standing dramatically from her chair so as to approach Chris. “Does your daddy know you’re here? How does he feel about you aligning yourself with witches? You’re supposed to be a necromancer and you’re pretending to be some sort of goodie too shoes… hiding under witches shirts.”

“He’s not pretending,” said Lea, “Chris is good.”

“Foolish little witch,” Lace spat, and her voice hissed like a snake, recoiling just before it struck.     

“You see,” said Virgil, “we are tired of living in the shadows… hiding from the humans of whom we feed.”

“But you can’t just change the way things work,” said Lea. “You can’t take control of every human.”

“And why not?” asked Lace. “You think witches can stop us?”

“It’s not just witches,” said Ari, thinking of the coven and April, “not all vampires will want this. How did you force them to do this?”

None of the Ancients spoke for a moment. A low hiss had escaped the lips of many of the vampires in the crowd; there was muttering and angry growls, and for the first time Ari looked at them. The vampires sitting in the chairs seemed different; there was no other word to describe it, and yet Ari was certain that there was something very similar about the blood shot eyes and drawn out expression on their faces. Even Gwen, with her perfect blonde hair and manicured fingernails, looked unlike her normal self. She was glaring at Ari, her face contracted and menacing, but there was something desperate in her eyes, almost as if she were hungry… starving even.   

“Pasteur had it wrong,” Lace said finally, “we did not need to create a vaccine to fool the humans of our existence; what we needed was to control them… all of them. Why should we, the hunters of the night, hide from the world? It is our rightful place to rule over the humans. Evolution dictates that the strongest species should be at the top of the food chain. Even the humans enslave their animals for food. Why should we be any different?”

“But,” Ari said, struggling to find words.

“Lace, sister dearest,” said Virgil, his eyes narrowed as he stared at her, “we have said enough.”

“Virgil is right,” said Joseph, “we should focus on the reason why we have travelled here, to our beloved Pasteur Institute.”

“Ah yes,” said Lace, her green eyes wide and excited, “the trial.”   

“What trial?” Ari spat.

“We have been informed that there are still waeres in existence,” said Joseph.

“Bring in the prisoners,” said Lace, her eyes alight with malice.

At these words, two vampires in the front blurred from the room. They had gone for only a short time before they returned. Each of them was carrying a girl. Ari looked up at the mop of blonde hair that draped down the arm of one of the vampires, and saw with a pang of horror, that it was Riley. Her large stomach was pronounced by the way she was being carried and Ari feared from the way her hands hung lifelessly out to the side, that she was already dead. Pulling her eyes to the next girl, Ari saw Natalie.

Both girls were dropped on the stage, their bodies clambering to the floor heavily. Natalie’s head rolled to the side, her strawberry coloured hair covering her face, but Riley’s hands had jutted out when she had been thrown, protecting her stomach from hitting the hard floor. Struggling to sit up, Riley shuddered when she looked up and saw the Ancients, wincing as if the mere sight of them was painful.

“Riley!” Ari screamed, moving to race towards her but before she could take even one step, James had grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to a stop.

Ari felt a painful twinge in the palm of her hand, and quickly pulled her hand away, as though burnt. Next to her, James mirrored this reaction, looking down at the palm of his hand, also in confusion. Ari’s eyes widened curiously, having caught the faintest glimpse of a black image against the skin of James’s hand, but then Lea spoke, and her attention was pulled back up to the stage.

“Why are you doing this?” said Lea, her voice thick with fear.  

“You see the threat of the waeres existence before you,” said Lace, leaving her chair and walking to stand behind Riley. “The child this waere carries in her belly
is the result of her breeding with a…” Lace paused, looking around the room of vampires, her eyes thin slits as she added in a whisper, “vampire.”

There was a long silence after this. For the first time, the other vampires seated below the Ancients pulled their hungry eyes away from them, looking instead at Riley in disbelief.

“But…” asked Gwen, her hand in the air as if she was a student asking a question, “but, do you mean to say that a vampire has fathered a child? That the foetus inside this waere is part vampire? How is that possible?”

For answer Virgil glared at Gwen, as if the hopefulness in her voice was a personal insult.

“We spent a long time ridding the world of any chance of such an abomination being created,” said Virgil, his large and bulky appearance at odds with that of his slender siblings. “Centuries ago, we thought that with the help of the wraiths, we had eliminated the threat. We were wrong.”

“So that’s why you started the waere persecutions?” asked Ari, “Because vampires and waeres can have children together?”

Suddenly the words she had read from Lea’s grandmother’s book ‘Known Immortals’ flashed in her head; the story of how Grandor, the first immortal, had created all the other species of immortals. She remembered the story of Sabbine, Grandor’s daughter. She was the first vampire and had fallen in love with a man, Lyall, who Grandor had turned into the first waere. Had the Ancients known this story all along? Had they killed off all the waeres because they were afraid that it would unite the vampires and waeres?

“Off course,” said Virgil. “Such an atrocity could not be tolerated. The mixing of our blood line with that of animals is disgusting… blasphemy! The waeres had to be destroyed.”

“But how do we know that a vampire fathered the child?” asked Gwen, immediately shrinking back in her chair when Lace stared at her incredulously. “I don’t mean to question you… it’s just, I thought it was impossible.”

“Disgusting, yes,” said Lace, her eyes still fixed on Gwen in outrage, “but impossible… no. We have someone who has brought us testimony. Bring in the informant.”

From the door that James guarded emerged a vampire, one who Ari stared at in disbelief. She had recognised her immediately, her long black hair gliding down the back of her dress; it was… Kiara. She wore a vibrant red shoe strap dress, with black heels and matching gloves, which reached past her elbows and settled half way down her arms. Kiara’s eyes were dark, almost black, matching perfectly with the long fringe that danced just above her shapely eyebrows. Kiara was staring, transfixed, at Ragon.

“Kiara?” said Ari, but how the hell was she alive; Ari had watched her burn in a fire.  

Kiara smiled but did not speak; her eyes had darted to Lace and Joseph, though she moved to stand beside Virgil, as if she were his obedient pet. Ragon’s head had jolted upright when Ari had spoken Kiara’s name. His eyes were a mixture of confusion and disbelief, as if he didn’t quite believe what he was seeing.

“I see you know our informant,” Joseph said, indicating Kiara as he laughed lightly to himself.

“You could say that,” said Ari, her voice thick with rage. “But how are you…”

“Alive?” Kiara asked, finishing the question for her.

“We sent Shok, our assassin, to kill Kiara as punishment when we discovered that she had failed to destroy you as a baby,” said Lace. “Like you, we thought that she was dead. That was until recently, when she turned up in Latvia with a peace offering.”

At this Joseph indicated Natalie and said, “Proof that not all of the waeres had been killed.”

“When we questioned this one,” Lace added, pointing a long slender finger at Natalie, “she told us under torture that there was a waere with the child of a vampire in her belly, living here, in the Pasteur Institute.”

“And so you see, we had to come… to destroy all traces of this outrage,” Joseph said simply, his eyes rested greedily on Riley’s stomach. “And to ensure the end of the waere race once and for all, as we had thought we had done centuries ago.”

It was odd, Ari thought, how Lace and Joseph seemed to finish each other’s sentences, while Virgil sat in the background, apparently indifferent to the conversation.

“You attacked me and Natalie in the forest?” said Ari, recalling the silhouette of a woman with black hair who had attacked them.