“You nervous about the exam?” asked Chris, glancing down at the stack of palm cards Ari had hidden behind her lap top.
“Just a little,” she said.
At that moment Dr Boringer coughed loudly, and Ari glanced up to the front of the lecture theatre. Dr Boringer was eyeing her and Chris reproachfully, and so Ari pretended to be deeply in concentration with the slide that he was going through. It was less than a minute later when she felt her mind drifting and she glanced nervous at her lecturer, hoping it would be safe to re-commence reading over her palm cards. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice the small bandage on the side of Dr Boringer’s neck.
“You recon Dr Boring went on a hot date?” Chris whispered.
“What?” Ari asked.
“I bet he is hiding a whopping big hickey under that,” Chris whispered.
“Huh?” said Ari, staring again at the bandage. “I just thought… I mean don’t you think it might be-”
“-what, vampire related?” said Chris, laughing a little too loudly for Ari’s comfort.
“Well yea!” she hissed. “And keep your voice down!”
“What would a vamp want with a dried up old boring man like him?” said Chris.
“Yea I suppose so.”
For the next 2 hours, Ari pretended to listen to the lecturer, while secretly reading the palm cards she had prepared earlier. As with any lecture that went so long, Dr Boringer allowed them brief breaks every hour, at which point the students who had been able to stay awake, would go outside, refilling their water bottles or using the facilities.
“I can’t believe this lecture finishes at 6 o’clock,” Ari said, as she and Chris stretched their legs in the hallway; it was too dark and cold to go outside.
“Yea, but it’s already 5.30pm, so we only have to listen to Dr Boring for another half an hour. Then we can go up to the cafeteria for dinner. God I’m starving.”
Ari nodded, then noticing that the rest of the students were filing back into the room, followed suit. Dr Boringer had just recommenced his lecture, when Ari slumped back against her chair, felling an all too familiar tingling sensation. Clasping her hand against the metallic frame of the desk, Ari tried to remain up right. It was difficult work. Her eyes were sliding in and out of focus and her arms and legs felt numb, like they didn’t belong to her anymore.
“What is it?” asked Chris. “Ari one of your eyes… its gone green?”
Ari felt Chris’s arm latch to her elbow, but brushed him away. She was trying to look around, desperate to see if anyone else had noticed, but it seemed to only be Chris who realised that anything was wrong.
“It’s ok,” she lied, “I’m just a bit dizzy… too many hours of listening about parasites I guess.”
But Ari knew this was not true; she was having a premonition. Soon the blank faces of the students around her faded into darkness; standing out against the blackness was the bright white light of the projection screen. No longer was it showing pictures of ticks, but somehow the images had warped; she could see grey and white figures and then the faint shape of a man. Ari barely had time to register her astonishment when the outline changed, and two people seemed to peel away… two people that she knew- Clyde and Ragon. From the blurred surrounds, she guessed that they were running; she could hear a dull noise in her ears, as if she were being whisked away at an impossible speed, rather than seated in a crowded lecture theatre.
When finally Clyde and Ragon stopped running, Ari looked around, desperate to know where they were and why she was having this premonition. She was standing in a conifer forest, surrounded by gnarled trees, whose contorted branches filtered pale moonlight. Ragon and Clyde moved away from her and she followed, seeing them stop in front of a large boulder; instantly she knew where they were. She had recognised the bus-sized boulder from her trip into the forest to visit Sandra. Ragon and Clyde were in the Three Prong Trek. At the floor beneath the rock was a large black cat. Ari could tell by the strange way that it was lying outstretched, that something was wrong, but it was only when she saw the blood seeping from a wound across its neck, that she realised it was dying. Suddenly the cat on the floor began convulsing, and loud snapping sounds signified bones breaking as its body began to remodel, until there was a girl lying naked on the forest floor. The girl’s face was covered with thick, messy brown hair, and Ari watched as she took a shuddering breath and then moved no more; she was dead. Clyde and Ragon stared down at her body, and then Clyde fell suddenly to his knees, as if struck from behind. Without warning the forest pressed down on her, swamping her in thick green canopy, and then her vision ended.
“But-” Chris began to say.
“-seriously I am fine,” Ari interjected, though her hands shook. “Think I will just get some air.”
Ari moved quickly from her seat, her palm cards falling from her lap. She didn’t bother trying to pick them up, but grabbed her bag and her laptop and raced from the room.
“Am I boring you?” Dr Boringer asked her, but Ari did not turn around.
She had just left the Animal Studies building when someone called out to her.
“Hey,” Chris said, panting, “where you going so quickly? Are you ok? You went a little funny back there. You dropped all your palm cards, here.”
Ari accepted the jumbled mess of palm cards and thrust them into her bag.
“What? I mean, yea; I’m fine,” she lied, then, thinking that she should explain why she had rushed off, added, “have you started the lit review we have to do for genetics? I… I just remembered that it was due soon.”
Chris cocked his head to one side and narrowed his eyes.
“You decided to leave a lecture because you remembered an assignment that’s not due for another month?”
“I couldn’t listen to Dr Boring anymore,” she said. “Besides, you can never be too prepared for assignments.”
“Shouldn’t you be studying for your resit? Isn’t your sup exam tomorrow?”
“What? Oh yea. Good point. I’ll get started on that now,” said Ari, only half paying attention.
“Are you sure everything is alright?”
“Yea, just nervous about the exam,” she said.
“Ok, well now that I have broken free from Dr Boring, I’m gonna go up for dinner. I’ll probably be there for a while, so if you get hungry, come and join me. I can quiz you for the exam if you want.”
“Ok, sure. I mean, maybe. I will see how I go,” Ari said, non-committedly.
Purposefully walking slowly back towards her dorm room, Ari watched Chris move towards the cafeteria. When he was no longer in sight, she spun around and broke into a run, heading for Delta halls and the Three Prong Trek. At the same time she reached for her phone, frantically searching for Ragon’s number before calling him. His phone rang out. Next she called Clyde, but his phone also rang out. She guessed that being on patrol, meant that they either had their phones on silent, or perhaps left them back at Cruor halls.
As she ran she hurriedly typed a message to Ragon:
‘If you get this I need you to call me ASAP. You and Clyde are in danger.’
By the time she reached Delta halls, it was well and truly dark. The moon was a small blob of lightness, fighting hard against the infinite blanket of darkness the night’s sky provided. There were no tinkling stars, just thick grey storm clouds. During the night it was always difficult to navigate around the campus, but the moment Ari began the descent down the steep path from Delta halls towards the Three Prong Trek, all sources of light vanished. Had she thought it was difficult to scale down the path during the day, it was nothing compared with night time trekking. The loose stones underfoot were constant confounders to her co-ordination, and she slipped more than once on her way down.
By the time she was at the bottom of the cliff, facing the three signs that marked her arrival at the Three Prong Trek, Ari’s hands were covered in dirt and stung from many tiny cuts. Her left wrist felt as if she had sprained it on the descent
and she rubbed it soothingly. From her vision she had seen the enormous bus-sized boulder, and knew that the middle path would lead her to it.
She had barely taken three steps onto the path when what sounded like a scream erupted from the forest, immediately followed by many wings flapping. She looked up, expecting at the very least to see bats or perhaps birds, but there was nothing.
“Hello,” Ari called out, spinning around on the spot as her heart raced in her chest.
There was no answer and so she forced her legs forwards, even though her mind was screaming that she should turn around and run back to campus.
“You’re being stupid,” she said to herself, “one noise and you’re ready to give up.”
Feeling the darkness press down on her, she reached for her phone and used it as a torch to light her way. During the day the branches and willows along the path constantly tried to trip her, but now the trees appeared oddly still and silent, as if they were planning their attack.
“Everything is fine,” she cooed to herself, hoping like hell she was close to where she had seen her vision take place.
Then a gruesome growl sounded nearby and Ari glanced around nervously, just as the hairs at the back of her neck stood up.
“Ok, everything it not fine, nothing is fine,” she said, her voice a few octaves higher than normal.
“Well that’s obvious,” someone said, and Ari whirled around to see Thomas. “Ari, what the hell are you doing here?”
Ari looked back at him. Though she couldn’t help but feel grateful at his appearance, she knew from his tone that he was angry.
“I, um… I err…”
“What is wrong with you? Ragon is trying to find out who is responsible for killing other vampires, and you’re out wandering around for a midnight stroll?”
Ari tried not to let Thomas’s words cut through her resolve.
“I had a premonition of Clyde getting hurt.”
“What? You had a vision?” Thomas said. “What exactly did you see?”
“Ragon and Clyde. They were together, standing over the body of a dead waere, and then someone attacked Clyde from behind. I recognised the spot because it was close to where I visited Sandra.”
“But why did you have to come out here? Why couldn’t you just tell us?”
“I tried calling Ragon and Clyde, but they didn’t answer,” she explained. “And I only just had the premonition. What was I supposed to do? Stay in my dorm room while the coven risks their lives? It isn’t the 1800’s Thomas. Women have rights; believe it or not but we’re even allowed to vote. And, in case you have forgotten, I killed the Triad; I can take care of myself and I am not going to sit at home knitting, while the people I love risk their lives.”
When Ari finally finished she was panting and her eyes were wide and vivid. Even Thomas was staring back at her in disbelief.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said, looking down at the ground. “I just… it’s just that I am worried that these waeres are responsible for Victoria’s absence also, and after everything with Sandra… I have had to hide her in a different part of the forest because of the patrols. She’s safe but I can’t help thinking, someone might find her.”
“You think the waeres killed Victoria? But she went missing ages ago.”
Thomas did not answer. He was suddenly bolt upright, his eyes thin slits as he scanned the forest. Ari was just about to ask what was wrong when another growl, this one much closer, had both of them turning around. Ari’s eyes were as big as saucers when she realised that a giant cat was stalking towards them. She knew immediately from its speckled caramel coat that it was a lynx. Thomas moved instinctively to stand in front of Ari; the cat hissed and then Ari held her hands up and stopped time.
Immediately she realised her mistake. In front of her was Thomas, frozen, while the cat continued to stalk towards her; the cat was a waere. Ari had stopped time out of instinct; she completely forgot that her powers did not work on waeres. The cat was hunched low, poised to strike, when someone else appeared. Standing beneath a large conifer, her blonde hair looking particularly vivid and windswept, was Bridget. The relief that Ari felt at seeing someone vanished entirely.
Great, Ari thought. Bridget was quite possibly the last person she wanted to see, in fact Ari thought, she might prefer to be alone with the waere if she had the choice. Fortunately however, Bridget did not appear to have even noticed Ari or Thomas. Instead her eyes were pin pricks, locked only on the lynx, and then she blurred at it, reaching out a clawed hand to catch it around the neck as it tried to flee. Dark red blood sprayed onto the forest floor, lit eerily by the dwindling moon light. The lynx let out a startled cry and then stammered away, mortally wounded.
Ari jerked forwards involuntarily and Bridget looked up; she seemed to be considering whether or not to chase after the waere or stay and attack Ari.
“Catch you next time,” cackled Bridget, throwing her hair back as she ran after the injured animal.
As soon as Bridget was gone, Thomas unfroze; Bridget hadn’t even noticed that he was there. He turned to Ari, hoisting her over his shoulders before breaking into a run. She closed her eyes and felt the wind whistle against her ears.
It was several minutes before Thomas finally stopped, allowing Ari to fall from his shoulder and onto the floor. Instantly she felt herself convulse, as wave after wave of nausea over swept her and she vomited. Though she had hitched rides with vampires before, Thomas was so much… faster; there was no other word for it. She knew he was older than any of the other vampires in the coven, but she hadn’t really realised just how much stronger that made him.
“Are you ok?” Thomas asked, reaching down to her and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “What happened back there? Where did the waere go?”
“I froze time then Bridget… she attacked it.”
“Did Bridget see you use your powers?” asked Thomas, his voice tense.
“I don’t think so; she was too preoccupied with the lynx.”
Just then a snarl caught the pair’s attention; Ari looked up to see something fury spiralling through the air, and then Thomas hurled himself at it. Ari saw the flash of fangs and realised that it was another lynx, or rather another waere. This one was much larger than the first, and though Ari wasn’t certain, she thought that there was something masculine about it. Soon the pair grappled together, locked in a snarling fight as they tramped through the forest.
“Thomas,” screamed Ari, but it was too late; they had vanished.
Throwing caution to the wind, Ari chased after Thomas and the waere. The forest seemed to relish in her incoordination, its lengthy branches leering down at her. And all the while there was quiet… eerie, unsettling quiet. No peace could be found in this lack of noise; the silence pressed down on Ari, humming in her ears and making her head feel too big for her body. After a few moments of straining to hear anything, she finally saw something she recognised; the large boulder from her vision. Now that she was facing it in reality, she could appreciate just how old the rock looked. It was enormous, with smooth facets that looked to have been worn down with time. Ari’s eyes lowered; there was something sprawled out beneath the rock. She inched closer and shivered. The waere from her premonition was lying beneath the rock, its neck bloodied and its eyes rolling into the back of its head. It was as if her vision was replaying itself before her eyes.
Inching closer towards it, Ari held out a shaky hand. The cat was breathing heavily, and with each exhale, a small crackle sounded from somewhere deep inside its chest. When Ari was less than a foot away, the cat let out a pathetic hiss. In a last attempt to protect itself, the cat held up its paw and tried to push Ari away, but still Ari continued forwards, feeling for a pulse at the groove of the cat’s pad. She did not know why, but all she could think of was helping the injured animal. Holding her hands against the gashes in the cat’s throat, Ari applied pressure; thick sticky blood swelled beneath her hand and in between her fingers.
�
��You’re going to be ok,” she whispered, fighting her previous images of the dead animal from her vision.
She was still holding the lynx’s neck, but she almost released it, when from the corner of her eye someone appeared. It was Bridget; she had obviously tracked her prey and was here to finish the job.
“Hmm,” said Bridget, watching Ari from the edge of a particularly dense part of the forest. “You know, humans taste so much better than animals. And I can’t quite get out of my head how delicious you must taste, to have captured the attention of Ragon.”
At Bridget’s threat, Ari’s heart raced. There was no pause… no considering her actions; Bridget lunged at Ari. Ari barely had enough time to register the attack, mercifully throwing her hands up into the air and halting time, right before Bridget could reach her.
Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) Page 32