Ari moved over to Lea, reaching a hand out to her imploringly.
“Please you have to trust me. I know all about all of this stuff; just because someone is a vampire or a wraith, it doesn’t make them evil. Ragon has done nothing but keep me safe.”
“I wish I could believe you,” said Lea, moving away from Ari. “But I have already made a deal to keep you safe from him.”
“What deal?”
From the shadows a group of people emerged. There were three of them: one girl and two men. They were heavily cloaked, with large hoods covering their faces. But even in the absence of light, Ari knew from their deathly pale faces, that they were vampires.
“You have done well witch,” the girl said, and Ari watched as the woman lowered her hood, revealing a head of spiky black hair.
Dread coursed through Ari; the girl who spoke was the vampire who had attacked Chris and her at the Three Prong Trek.
“You,” said Ari, glaring at the vampire.
“We will take it from here,” the man standing in the middle of the group said, also lowering his hood, where two near pitched-black eyes seemed to bore into Ari, as if he could see straight through her.
“And we still have a deal?” Lea asked, trying to keep her voice authoritative, though she backed away from the group of vampires.
“About that,” the last man said, blurring over to Lea and standing less than an inch away from her. “The situation has changed.”
Lea stared at the man; his large crocked nose and pitter-pattered face, gave him the appearance of an old wind-swept rock.
“What do you mean?” said Lea, her voice trembling.
“We require the girl as well,” he said, and his face broke into a slow and painful smile, making his crocked nose appear lopsided.
“That wasn’t the deal; you promised she would not be involved,” said Lea, raising her hands into a strange position.
“You should have known better than to trust vampires; did you think the Ancients would call upon us, the Triad, to fetch one lowly vampire?” said the female vampire, laughing lightly to herself.
“You made a deal with the Ancients?” asked Ari, her face draining of all colour.
“What… no, I mean…” Lea scrambled in reply.
Ari could tell by the look of absolute horror on Lea’s face that she had not planned for this. Around her, Ari felt the temperature drop a few degrees, just as icy wind rushed past her, blowing her hair messily in front of her face. The vampire nearest Lea had moved even closer, but Lea had muttered something under her breath, and the vampire was stopped dead it its tracks, as if an invisible force field blocked his path. Encasing Lea was a glowing blue sphere; several unrecognisable symbols seemed to connect the ball of light, making it appear as if Lea were trapped in a viscid protective bubble.
“Ari, get over here now,” said Lea, beckoning for Ari to join her. “It’s a barrier spell.”
Ari moved without thinking, racing to Lea’s side.
“Miserable witch,” said the vampire nearest Lea, reaching out a clawed hand so as to try puncture through Lea’s protective field, “you think we didn’t come prepared for this?”
Lea and Ari looked around wildly; from the shadows a fourth figure appeared. There was fog curling up his robes and though he did not remove his hood, the moon shone temporarily to highlight his face. He was tall and bald, with a long thin nose and light blue eyes; Ari thought that there was something strangely familiar about him.
“Wraith,” Lea hissed, while the vampire nearest them inched ever closer.
The wraith looked up at Lea, holding his palms out, just as thick black shadows shot at her.
The shadows ate away at the glowing symbols of the protective bubble, like acid tearing through metal. Slowly the glowing symbols faded, just as the blue sphere encasing Lea and Ari thinned. A moment later and the vampire broke through Lea’s protective charm, rushing at her with such speed and hitting her hard. Immediately Lea fell to the floor. A second later and a loud thud echoed through the still night; Ari turned around to see that Ragon had fallen to the ground, released from his binds. The silver branches and roots that had curled up his arms and legs were recoiling, their silvery sparkles fading, until the hawthorn tree appeared normal.
“Ragon,” Ari said, rushing to his side.
He did not speak but small droplets of blood trickled from his ears, nose and eyes.
“This is the one? But… but she is so weak,” said the vampire who had hit Lea.
“I assure you she is the one,” said the female, now moving over to Ari.
Ari reacted without thinking, throwing her hands up in front of her face and stopping time. Now that Ragon was unbound, she tried pulling him away; it was like trying to move a giant slab of marble, and she barely managed to drag him a few feet before she collapsed, panting. There was no way she would be able to pull him to safety. Time was running out; she needed to do something. Thinking of Lea, Ari raced over to the girl who was still unconscious and started shaking her violently, but she did not wake up.
Her last desperate thought rested with her phone. Instantly Ari was on her hands and knees, rummaging through the fallen leaves and raking the ground for any trace of it, but it was nowhere to be found. All hope had left her until her eyes met a thick branch, whose broken end reminded her of a dagger. Moving over to it she picked it up and eyed it strangely. Then with one fast stab she thrust it into her palm, driving it through her skin as she cried out in pain. Though the wood had splintered on contact, it had done its job, and thick blood pooled from the wound, too fresh to begin congealing.
Quickly Ari rushed back to Ragon, her hand held out, ready to revive him with her blood, but just before she could reach him she felt two strong arms pulling her away.
“NO!” she screamed, kicking and writhing.
Then something large and heavy hit her hard in the back of the head and everything became dark.
“There will be plenty of time for that later,” the female vampire said, reaching down to cradle Ari in her arms.
“What is she?” the wraith asked, and Ari’s eyes flickered open, just long enough to see fog still wrapping around the man’s legs.
“She is none of your concern.”
Chapter 13 – The Ancients
When Ari opened her eyes, her mind was chaotic with distorted images; first of Chris turning into a husky, then Sandra and Thomas fighting over vials of blood candy; Clyde holding a frail lifeless girl in his arms, and Lea, battling three vampires and a wraith, and then finally Ragon, his lifeless body bound by silver and hawthorn.
She startled when she woke, struggling to sit up until she realised that her hands were bound by thick metal chains. She pulled against them hard; they clinked crudely in the silence but would not give. Slowly she sat up and saw that she was in a small stone paved room. It was dark, bar a few candles that twinkled in various window crooks, but the light they cast was enough to illuminate a barred door, where traces of glowing silver shot through the wooden frame. Trying to adjust her eyes to the dim lighting, she blinked furiously, and then her bound hands reached for her head, rubbing the spot where she had been struck and a large welt had already begun to form. Where was she? How much time had passed? Where was Ragon; was he ok?
Slowly Ari struggled to her feet. The stone beneath her was freezing and she began to shiver as she neared the door. Just before she could reach it however, the binds around her wrist pulled tight. Moving back to where her chains were anchored, Ari placed her palms down against the stone bench, then instantly withdrew them, recoiling from the pain. Turning her left hand up, she saw a bloodied cut, and instantly remembered her attempt to revive Ragon. Now the wound in her palm was dried, caked with blood and splinters of wood. With a determined look on her face, she began pulling the fragmented wood from her hand.
“What’s that delicious smell?”
The voice that spoke was faint, but Ari knew from the pitch that it belonged to a woman. Sec
onds later the vampire with short spiky black hair appeared, her long cloak swishing around her feet. She was flanked by two other cloaked men, and when they came into view, Ari realised who it was… the Triad.
Both men had wide evil smiles and Ari couldn’t help but cower in their presence. At first neither Ari nor the Triad spoke, but then the male with the crocked nose stepped forward and produced a large silver and wooden key from his robe. He was wearing a pair of black gloves and used the key to open the door to Ariana’s cage. She watched as he blurred over to her, unshackling her from the wall and then re-shackled the chains to his wrists, so fast she didn’t even have a moment to cry out in surprise.
“We can’t have you stopping time and escaping,” the female said, laughing.
The chains on Ari’s wrists were pulled tight and she moved obediently, walking behind the two men, while the third Triad member followed behind her.
“Where is Ragon?” Ari asked.
There was no response and so Ari dug her feet into the ground in protest, only to feel the chains pull around her wrist as she was forced forward.
They walked down a lengthy hallway, along which there were many wooden and silver doors. Walking past one of the cells, Ari heard a loud scream and watched in horror as the bars of the door shook violently.
“Master will come for us; he gathers powers of his line. No one can stop him,” the man behind the bars hissed.
But the prisoner’s words were cut off when one of the Triad members threw something against the cell, and the vampire behind the bars fell back, screeching in pain.
“Filthy blood hunter,” one of the Triad members said under his breath.
“I need more blood candy,” another voice said, this one entirely different to the first.
He was ignored by the Triad.
When finally they reached the end of the hall, Ari blinked in confusion; there was nothing but a large stone wall in front of them. The male who was not attached to her moved off to the side and stepped behind the wall. Ari felt her binds pull and she shuffled with her captor behind the stone wall that had appeared to be a dead end. They walked in total darkness for a few minutes, and Ari struggled with the weight of the chains, trying to hold her hands out to feel her way along the bitch black passage.
A few times she stumbled on a broken paver or a wayward growing root, falling hard against the Triad member she was chained to.
The third time this happened someone said, “You’re sure she is the right one?”
“Are you questioning me?” the female Triad member yelled back.
“Right what?” Ari said, cutting across the silence that followed.
There was no response and so Ari spoke again, this time trying her best to sound as confident as possible.
“What do you think I am?
Still there was no reply and Ari sighed loudly, hearing the faint echo of her voice trail down the corridor, rebounding off the cool stone walls.
When finally the darkness began to lift, Ari breathed a sigh of relief; there was light at the end of the tunnel. The passageway ended in the same way it had begun, so that Ari had to fumble with her male captor to find the edge of the wall so as to slip past it. As soon as she had navigated around the wall, she saw that it led to a huge paved room, with high ceilings and magnificent stone statues, giving the place the feeling of an indoor cemetery.
“Welcome child.”
Looking around, Ari realised that what she thought were statues were in fact people, three of them, each seated in magnificent stone thrones. A female sat in the front, flanked by two males on either side of her, their cracked sandstone and marble features, blending in perfectly with their surrounds.
“We have been so looking forward to meeting you.”
“I can’t say the feeling is mutual,” Ari replied gruffly.
There was something familiar about the three people before her and she raked her memory, trying hard to recall where or when she had seen this exact room before. She looked more closely at the prominent female vampire in the throne. Her hair was so bright red that it looked to be almost glowing, while her face, though portraying the woman to be no more than 20 years of age, had a look of sorrow about it, as if she had experienced too much and now there was no mystery left in the world. Her eyes were a mesmerising green and matched perfectly with the long elaborate emerald dress that she wore, giving her the appearance of a roman princess. When Ari looked closer and saw the pin prick freckles that dotted the vampires cheeks and nose, she remembered where she had seen her before; in a dream that she had had, many, many months before, when she had been living in Australia.
“I know you,” Ari said boldly, her blue eyes meeting with the vampire’s green ones.
The vampire stared at Ari in disbelief, but then blurring past her, said, “I see you have already met our Triad.” The red-haired vampire moved lovingly to the man whose Ari’s chains were bound to, and stoked a single finger down his cheek. “But you have not yet met us, the Ancients. I am Lace and these are my brothers, Joseph and Virgil. Collectively we are the Ancients.”
Lace pointed in turn to each of her siblings; first to the man on the left whose name was Joseph, and then to one on the right, Virgil. Ari thought that Joseph looked very similar to Lace; the pair might even be twins. Both had long red hair that swept down to their elbows, full pouty lips, slender noses and the same brilliant emerald eyes. Joseph wore a pair of black long cotton pants and an elaborate black robe but no shirt. His skin stood out, pale and pasty against the darkness of his clothes, giving his skinny complexion an almost weak appearance.
Opposite him was Virgil; he contrasted drastically with his siblings. Instead of having long luscious hair, he had shorter thin hair, and his eyes were different too; a funny honey colour that did not afford him the same magnificence as his brother or sister. His frame was much larger also, not at all like the slender figure’s aside him. He wore a pure white robe and white pants, and like Joseph, no shirt. It felt strange that such young looking vampires were the Ancients that everyone was so afraid of, but judging by the way the Triad bowed obediently in their presence and avoided making eye contact, Ari guessed that they were more powerful than they seemed.
“Where is Ragon,” said Ari, her determined eyes staring straight at Lace, who returned the same chilled stare.
“We can discuss the traitor later,” said Lace. “We have brought you before us to offer you your life if you agree to join us.”
“I want to see Ragon. Where is he?”
“He awaits punishment,” said Lace.
“For what?” Ari spat.
“For many crimes, least of all, choosing a mortal over his own kind; that in itself is enough to ensure he burns,” said Virgil, a cruel smile creeping across his otherwise indifferent face.
“Please, let him go, I will do… anything,” Ariana said, and she watched as Lace and Joseph looked at each other, clearly contemplating her plea. “I’ll stay here with you. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Ari watched as Joseph and Lace stared at one another, occasionally shaking their heads or else rubbing their hands together. She had the strangest feeling that they were communicating with each other somehow. She could tell by the perturbed look on Virgil’s face, that he was not privy to their private conversation.
“We cannot let Ragon live,” Lace said finally. “Even if he had not of broken the Final Death Laws; it is clear he means much to you. How could we be sure of your loyalty to us if he were alive?”
“But we can offer you your life; if you agree to stay here and be part of our family,” Joseph said suddenly.
Ari couldn’t help herself; she burst into laughter, fighting back tears as she said, “Why would I possibly want to stay here?”
“Perhaps not here but surely you would like to live?” said Lace, inching closer to her.
“Live?” Ari asked. “Of course I want to live, but not without Ragon.”
For the briefest of instances, Joseph gla
nced at Lace, but his sister remained resolved, straightening herself as she said, “Bring him,” and gestured to the Triad.
Promptly the man and woman not attached to Ari left the room, blurring away so that only the Ancients, Ari, and the Triad member who was chained to her, remained. Ari looked curiously around the room she was in, searching for some point of escape. It was then that she noticed there was someone else there, a man, peering out at her from behind a corridor. He looked to be around 30 years old, with dark hair and light coloured eyes. Ari had the odd feeling that she had seen this man before.
“Who are you?” she called out, hoping that her voice would carry across the room.
A few seconds passed but there was no answer. Before she could call out again however, harsh laughter filled the room. Whirling around, she watched as three people appeared, her eyes lighting up when she saw Ragon was amongst them. It wasn’t until she had sprung towards him that she remembered that she was still bound.
Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) Page 23