“Whose source are you?” asked the vampire.
Ari’s mouth fell open.
Chris also looked stunned, but quickly hid his confusion by saying, “Ragon Young.”
The vampire on the door narrowed his eyes, apparently unconvinced.
“Show me your bite,” he snarled.
“Why should we?” asked Ari, standing in front of Chris. “We are Ragon’s source. Only he can command us. He told us to come here and text our friends on campus, to, err, make sure they had all been lulled and were at the Farm.”
The vampire took a step towards her, standing so close that she could smell his aftershave.
“Well,” he said, turning to glare at Chris, “make sure you get back to the farm once you’re done.”
“Um,” said Ari, unsure of how to answer.
“Sure,” said Chris, grabbing Ari’s hand and pulling her past the guard.
Ari and Chris waited until they were out of ear shot before turning to face one another.
“What the hell was that all about?” said Chris, staring at Ari in confusion.
“The vamps are taking over,” said a small voice.
Ari and Chris turned on the spot, looking for the source of the noise, but there was no one in the hallway. Ari stared for a moment at the wall; it looked different somehow, almost as if it had become fluent. Then the wall shimmered, as if a vail had been lifted off the brickwork, and from it Lea appeared.
“Lea,” Chris breathed, rushing to her side. “What the hell is going on?”
“The vamps are taking over,” she said again.
Ari thought that Lea sounded fatigued. She definitely looked paler than normal; her eyes were blood shot and bulging, as if she had been crying and her nose was red and puffy. But it wasn’t just her appearance which worried Ari; there was something in her tone. It sounded dull and lifeless, as if, somehow, she had lost a part of her.
“What… what do you mean?” asked Ari.
“After you left,” said Lea, scanning the corridor, clearly afraid of being overhead, “the vamps from Cruor halls started attacking everyone. The entire campus has been overrun. They’re still out there now, capturing any humans who hadn’t been bitten yet. Everyone in the circle was killed. I only just got away. I have been hiding in the wall using a disillusionment charm.”
“But,” Chris said, apparently unable to finish his sentence.
“They took them all to the Farm. They are probably dead. I saw them take Ragon and the coven there too. I don’t know what’s happened to them; they are probably dead too.”
“Lea,” said Ari, moving to her side and hugging her hard, “I’m so sorry about your circle.”
Ari felt wet tears blanket her shoulder. Lea was heaving, gasping and choking, as if her tears were poison.
“When we went to the Farm we saw… people, hundreds of them… they are keeping them like cattle, collecting their blood,” said Chris.
Lea whimpered and shrunk to the floor.
“Oh God,” was all she said.
“What can we do?” asked Chris.
“Nothing,” said Lea. “They have won. It’s over.”
“NO!” said Ari, so loudly that Chris shushed her. “We can’t let them get away with this. We have to do something.”
It was clear that Lea had given up all hope, but Ari hadn’t. Ragon was still alive, and so was Riley; she had to be.
“There are too many of them,” said Lea. “And without the circle…”
“But we’re still here,” said Ari. “We have to be able to do something.”
“I don’t know what,” said Lea.
Ari had had enough. She walked over to Lea, holding her hand out and forcing the girl to her feet.
“You are a witch!” said Ari, with such force that her voice shook. “A good witch! And I’m… I am the Grandor Descendant. Chris, well he can control vampires. If anyone can stop them, it’s us! You need to snap out of it. I know that this is horrible and scary but, but it’s up to us to do something. We’re the only ones who can.”
For the first time Lea seemed to really hear her. She was nodding, her eyes peeled as she gestured for Chris and Ari to follow her to her room.
“Ok,” she said, closing the door and turning to face them, “what’s the plan?”
Ari was pleased to see that Lea looked revitalised.
“I think we should start by getting a message to your Gran,” said Chris, looking at Lea. “Tell her what has happened.”
Lea nodded, reaching for her phone but frowning the moment it was in her hand.
“What?” Ari asked, looking at her in concern.
“There’s no reception,” said Lea, holding her phone to show the emergency signal.
Quickly Chris’s hands dived into his pocket to retrieve his cell. Ari saw his face fall and knew that he had no reception either.
“Ok,” said Ari, “clearly the vamps want the Pasteur Institute isolated. They must have been planning this for a while. Let’s just think about it logically. Last night everything was normal, then I had a premonition of Riley being taken into the Farm and we found out that the vamps have been kidnapping students to be part of some sort of blood bank.”
“That’s what they’re doing with them? Stealing their blood? But why would they? That doesn’t make any sense,” said Lea, striding across the room, thinking hard. “I just don’t understand why the vamps here have all of a sudden decided to do this. Doesn’t this go against their Final Death Laws? I thought that they were supposed to keep their existence a secret, and now they have attacked the entire campus.”
“I think the Ancients are behind this,” said Ari. “Think about it. James Frater works for the Ancients, and now he’s here, in charge of the Farm. And a few weeks ago there were a heap of vampire students that were admitted, supposedly to study at the Farm. I think they were sent here to oversee all of this. I just don’t know why.”
“What if the vamps have decided that it’s time to come out of the closet?” said Chris.
“But they can’t,” said Lea. “The vampires have always kept their existence a secret. That’s part of their Final Death Laws. If they decided to reveal themselves… that would…”
“That would mean the end of the world as we know it,” said Ari, her face grim. “I think this is what my parents and Chris’s dad were warning us about. The Ancients are behind it; they have to be!”
“But how would they get all the vampires to obey them?” asked Ari. “Ragon’s coven aren’t the only vampires to oppose having sources. There must be heaps of vampires in the world who want to remain in the shadows.”
“I don’t know,” Lea admitted. “Maybe they threatened them?”
Ari frowned; they were missing some piece of the puzzle, the clue that would tell them exactly how the Ancients planned to take over with all the vampires by their side.
“Well,” said Ari, when the silence in the room had stretched on for what felt like hours, “I think we need to get to the coven. We know that they are being kept inside the Farm. We can get in without being detected. It’s up to us now to put a stop to this!”
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 Chr
is.
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.”
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 31