“Who are you?” she said, and for a moment, James looked confused. “When we were back in Latvia, you wanted to know about the Grandor descendant. Why?”
“I was curious,” said James. “I told you, I had heard the Ancients mention the name before.”
Again James held the door out for Ari to enter and this time she did so, turning to face him as he swung the huge metal door closed and locked it.
“You helped me before,” she said, her eyes locked resolutely on his, and for a second, just a second, she thought she saw something familiar in his green eyes.
Seeing the change in Ari’s expression, James shook himself and narrowed his eyes, saying, “Well, if you want to help yourself and your friends, you will heed the Ancients. It’s simple… if you want to live then you will join them.”
“But they’re monsters,” Ari called after him, when James had begun retreating to the dungeon door.
James stopped, his hand rested on the handle and spun to face Ari.
“There’s a little bit of monster in everyone,” he said, and then he left.
The moment the dungeon door closed, the room was thrown into darkness. Only the glow from the hawthorn cells provided any light. It produced a strange radiance, ominous and blue, casting an eerie glow over the vampires kept behind the cages. It made Ragon look sickly, as if just being kept behind this magical prison was draining him of strength. His face was lined and sunken, his eyes dark and shadowed.
“What are we going to do?” asked Ragon, and all the eyes of the coven turned to face him.
Only Lea looked away. Her eyes were plastered on the door, a mixture of hopelessness and regret lining her face.
Before Ari could respond, several questions had been flung at her, each bringing with it a wave of nausea and fear.
“Riley,” Clyde croaked, “did you… do you know where she is? Is she alright?”
“What did they want?” asked Thomas.
“Where’s Chris?” asked Sandra, looking around.
Ari sighed. How was she supposed to tell Clyde and the rest of the vampires what they had just learnt? What didn’t the Ancients want? They wanted Ari to join them in exchange for the lives of the coven. They wanted to take over the world, and they wanted to kill every single waere. Finally the reasoning behind the waere persecutions had been explained. The Ancients had slaughtered them because they had discovered that vampires and waeres could procreate. How was she supposed to tell Clyde that Riley was alive but that she would only remain so long enough for Chris’s father to locate every single waere in the world, so that they could be slaughtered just like their ancestors? And Chris, Chris had been the bargaining chip which the Ancients had used to ensure the wraith performed the dark magic that would connect Riley and all other waeres.
Ragon was shaking his head, his eyes dark and lost to shadows. He seemed to be unable to talk, unable to admit to the coven, to his best friends, that there was no hope. Seeing the defeated look in Ragon’s eyes, Ari opened her mouth, the words spilling from her as she told the coven everything that they had found out.
“The Ancients are here. They have taken over the whole school; they’ve killed all the witches,” said Ari, her sad eyes glancing towards Lea’s cell, though still the girl did not look up, “and Kiara’s alive… she captured Natalie and told them that Riley was pregnant and that you were the father. That’s why they killed off all the waeres centuries ago. They found out that vampires and waeres can have children together. They think it is an abomination. Chris’s father negotiated to have Chris returned to him, but they only agreed if he performed a connection spell. They are going to use Riley to find all of the waeres and kill them.”
“NO!” Clyde screamed, suddenly standing and slamming his body hard against the prison walls, which shot thick silvery light at him, coiling up his arms and face. He crumpled to the floor, howling in pain as his body twitched. “Why did I fall for her?”
“Riley is the best thing that has ever happened to you!” Sandra said incredulously.
“Exactly,” said Clyde, “and now, because of me, she is paying for it. She would have better off if she never met me. She would be safe… probably still with Paul and her pack, hiding in the forests she loves so much.”
“Clyde, honey,” said Sandra, cooing gently to him from her cell, “Riley loves you just as much as you love her. You two found each other, you were meant to. You belong together. The love you shared produced a miracle, and despite the odds, the danger, hell, the most powerful vampires in the world brainwashing vampires and waeres to hate each other, you still fell for one another. That’s not something you should regret… it’s something you should be grateful for. People go their entire lives looking for that kind of love. Just look at you. You have lived more than your fair share of lifetimes and it has taken you this long to find your soul mate. And besides, we won’t let the Ancients hurt Riley. We are going to get out of this.”
“But that’s just it,” said Ragon, laughing sardonically. “They’ve agreed to let us all live if Ari stays with them… if she joins them.”
“And Riley?” asked Sandra, looking up hopefully.
Ari shook her head and Clyde let out another wail, his fingernails raking his hair painfully.
“They are going to kill her as soon as the connection spell has located all the waeres,” said Ragon.
“What good is it if I am alive and Riley isn’t,” said Clyde.
“But we can’t let them,” said Sandra. “We have to be able to fight them. We have to be able to get out of these cells, save Riley and-”
“-and what?” asked Ari. “They know that I can burst into sunlight, that’s why they have kept me down here with you. So if I try to escape and save Riley, I will kill you. And I can’t freeze my way out of these iron bars. They have us right where they want us. We don’t even have Chris anymore, and they told Lea that if she helps they will kill Emily and her entire family.”
“The only chance is if Ari agrees to stay with them in exchange for our lives and Riley’s,” said Ragon, and Clyde looked up hopefully at him. “They want Ari badly… hopefully bad enough to put aside their hate for waeres. They won’t be able to kill Riley until after the connection spell is complete; they need her alive for it to work. Maybe we can bargain for Riley’s life too?”
Silence followed this proclamation. It was deafening. Though Ragon’s words had spoken hopefully, Ari knew there was no hope. The Ancients hated waeres, what’s more, they thought of Riley and Clyde’s union as an abomination. There was no way they would include Riley in their deal to have Ari on their side. And, Ari thought bitterly, what good was being alive if she was under the Ancients control? Forced to do their bidding? Made to help them destroy the world. Was this what her mother had meant, when she had told Ari that she needed to do the right thing? Was this the decision that Grandor knew she would one day have to make?
Ari wasn’t sure how long it had been when the door to the dungeon creaked open and someone appeared. The light behind the door was blinding, temporarily casting a familiar silhouette around the person standing there. There was a clicking of high heels along the concrete floors and Ari watched as the person moved over to Ragon’s prison and leant down, crouching in front of it.
“Kiara?” breathed Ragon, his voice dry, his lips bloodied and cracked.
Kiara’s back was to Ari, but she imagined the lustful look on the woman’s face as she contemplated Ragon.
“Oh Ragon,” said Kiara, and Ari was surprised to hear a tone of genuine sorrow to her voice. “What have you done? Why would you go up the Ancients? You must have known that you couldn’t win!”
Ragon smiled at her; it was a kind smile, one that touched his eyes and made Ari shiver involuntarily.
“I thought you were dead,” he said.
“I almost was,” said Kiara. “Shok left me bleeding and you left me burning but no… I did not die.”
She inched closer to Ragon’s cell, reaching out her hands
, which were still covered in long black gloves, so as to stretch her hands through the prison bars. Finally her fingertips reached Ragon’s face. Ari’s mouth fell open; Ragon had not cowered away from Kiara but remained where he sat, looking up at her, wide eyed.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“You know why,” said Kiara. “I’m here for you. The Ancients will not honour their word. After Ariana says that she will join them, they will kill you all. They will make it look like an accident, blame it on someone else… I know them. I know how they work. I was Virgil’s assassin for many years. They want Ari, but they know that the only way to truly own her is to take away the bonds which keep her human. Like I said, I know them. I know how they work.”
“Ragon doesn’t want or need your help,” said Sandra, her southern accent scornful. “The other vampires… they will not stand for what the Ancients have done. As soon as word of the Ancient’s betrayal reaches the Elders, they will have to act. The Final Death Laws-“
“-don’t be a fool!” hissed Kiara, her head jolting angrily towards Sandra, as she pulled her hand out from Ragon’s cage, almost as if she had forgotten that she and Ragon were not alone. “The Ancients wrote the Final Death Laws. They can just as easily be unwritten.”
“There are plenty of vampires who will oppose this action. Not every vampire will want to go along with this plan,” Thomas interjected. “The Ancients will be lucky if half the vampires follow them. The rest will form a coo, and there will be a struggle for power. How can the Ancients hope to overthrow all those vampires?”
“Thomas, you really are a doubter, aren’t you. Do you honestly believe that the Ancients would attempt this so lightly? Did you not hear them? They have been planning this for decades. They have ensured this plan would come to fruition and smoothly. Did you not see all those vampires in the hall, waiting for their instructions like obedient puppies?”
“But how?” asked Thomas, and again Kiara seemed to be annoyed that there was an audience to her testimony. “How did they get so many to follow them in this foolhardy scheme? They must realise that it will not just be other vampires, but that the witches and wraiths will surely fight against them.”
“For the past two decades, blood candy had been growing more and more popular, unchecked by the Elders,” said Kiara, talking to Thomas, as if he were a child and she were explaining something simple. “Why do you think that is?”
Thomas opened his mouth but closed it.
“The Ancients have wanted to take over for years, but they needed a way to ensure the rest of the vampires would support them. They found it with the invention of blood candy. It is addictive, beyond that of any drug, and vampires addicted to it are completely reliant on it. The effect of just a few days without the substance induces paralytic withdrawals.”
Sandra let out a little gasp, turned to face Thomas and said, “But how do you know this?”
Kiara laughed and said, “I have been selling it to vampires in Brisbane for almost twenty years. Every one of the vampires here now, they don’t support the Ancients out of fear or respect, they are doing it because the Ancients have threatened to cut off their supply if they don’t.”
“But, where is the blood candy coming from?” asked Ragon.
For answer Kiara’s head tilted backwards, her eyes locking on the ceiling and suddenly Ari understood; the humans that had been kidnapped, the ones who were upstairs locked in glass cages as their blood was drained from them, they were the source of the blood candy. And just like that it all made sense. The stamp that Ari had seen over Emily’s medical file… it had said BC programme… Blood Candy programme. That’s why all the vampires upstairs looked the way they did. Ari had thought that the hungry expression on their faces was familiar and she was right. They had looked the way Sandra had when she had been going through the first stages of withdrawals from the blood candy.
“The Forensic Agency and Research Morgue, the Farm as you call it, it is one of many that the Ancients have set up across the world. Each is filled with missing humans. They give them a drug and put them into a coma, then they add something to their system, I don’t know what, and collect the blood candy,” said Kiara. “They have had twenty years to ensure that enough vampires are addicted to it and now all they have to do is shorten the supply and watch as the desperate vamps flock to their sides, all willing and ready to do whatever they are told, just as long as the blood candy supply continues. Nothing can stop them.”
“Why are you here Kiara?” asked Ragon.
Kiara’s eyes raked the prison, then she spoke, her voice soft, as though trying to invoke a private conversation.
“I can get you out of here. We can be together. We will have to hide from the Ancients, be on the run… but we will have each other,” she said, and even though Kiara was trying to keep her voice quiet, Ari couldn’t help but hear the hopefulness as Kiara spoke.
Every face in the dungeon was watching Ragon’s. Slowly he nodded, and Kiara placed her hand, almost feverishly, once again through the cells bars. When she went to touch Ragon’s cheek, he intercepted her, holding onto her hand instead.
“Kiara,” he said, and Ari felt her heart break at the sickly sweet and sympathetic tone to Ragon’s voice, “you still know nothing of love. You think you love me. You think that we can be together, but love is not possession… love is selfless.”
Kiara stood frozen, apparently unable to believe her ears. Ragon however had dropped her hand and resumed his seat in the cell, this time as far away from her as he could manage.
“You would rather stay here and die?” she asked incredulously.
“I would rather die with Ariana than live with you,” he said simply, no longer looking at Kiara, his eyes fixed instead behind, on Ari.
Ari felt her heart swell in her chest, until Kiara tore her eyes away from Ragon to glare at her. Though she said nothing, the icy look in her eyes spoke volumes. Kiara remained there for a moment, glowering at Ari, then blurred to the door and disappeared through it.
“Well,” said Clyde, looking around at the shocked faces, “that was dramatic.”
“The least you could have done was to accept. That way you would have been able to get out of here and kill the bitch,” said Sandra.
Ragon laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh, rather it was mirthless.
“Well, at least Chris will be alright,” said Lea, and Ari turned in her cell, peering down the dimly lit room to stare at her in confusion. “I just mean, if shit hits the fan, then he is on the other side of all this mess.”
“I hope he gets away from his father,” said Ari.
“He will,” said Lea, and there was a confidence to her tone. “He’s good… deep down. If I ever get out of this hell hole, remind me to tell him that.”
“Just that?” asked Ragon, and there was a smile at the corner of his mouth.
Lea looked at him curiously and said, “I could probably come up with something else to say.”
“Ragon,” said Ari, waiting for the conversation about Chris to die down before she spoke, “you should have gone with Kiara. You would have gotten to-”
“-don’t tell me you think that being on the run with Kiara would be living?” he asked, smiling at her.
“Well, compared to dying in a cell,” said Ari.
“Like I said, I’d rather die with you than live with her. Ariana,” he said, and Ari startled at how he had used her full name, “I don’t know if you know just how much you mean to me. I’ve told you that I love you, I’ve tried to show you how much better I am with you, but, if we don’t get out of this, I want you to know, you are my world.”
“Ragon,” Ari sighed, wishing desperately that they were alone, and that he was holding her, “how could I not know that? After everything you’ve done for me? You’ve risked everything to be with me.”
“I wouldn’t change a second of the time we’ve spent together,” said Ragon.
“I wouldn’t want you to,” Ari said.
<
br /> “If we get out of this, remind me to ask you to ma-” Ragon started to say, but Ari shushed him.
“-we will get out of this,” she said determinedly. “We all will.”
Chapter 20- Everyone has a Choice
For the rest of the night the coven sat in their cells in despair. They had gone through every possible plan of escape and had come to the conclusion that the only way to save their lives and Riley’s, was for Ari to join the Ancients and beg for Riley’s life and the covens in exchange. The threat Kiara had made, about the Ancients organising to have Ragon and the rest of the coven killed the moment that they agreed to their terms, kept playing in Ari’s mind. But what other choice did they have? The Ancients would kill them all if she refused. Foolishly, Ari had hoped that Chris would burst through the doors and rescue them, but he had not. No one had entered the dungeon after Kiara had left, and Ari feared that Chris was being kept somewhere, restrained by his father, as the wraith performed the dark magic that would locate all the waeres still alive today.
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 33