Chris rushed to his dad’s side, quickly picking up his clammy hands and squeezing them tightly.
“Dad?” said Chris, looking down in confusion.
“We make our own choices,” his father croaked, and then there was a gurgling noise and he spoke no more, his eyes wide and lifeless, his body limp in Chris’s hands.
“Kill them!” shrieked Joseph, and all around there were vampires advancing, slowly closing in or Ari and Chris, their eyes wide and hungry, their fangs beared.
Chris jumped to his feet, racing to Ari’s side as the pair faced the sea of vampires. It was then, as Ari looked helplessly from Riley and back at Chris’s dad, that she felt her blood begin to boil. Her hands reached for her brow, where thick sweat was beading across the surface and she grimaced, knowing what was coming. There was a scream from the vampire in front of her and she watched as they leapt in the air, ready to strike.
Instantly Ari felt herself explode into sunshine. The force that leapt from her danced momentarily in her veins before spilling out all around her. And just like that, the advancing vampires fell from the air, like squatted flies, writhing and coiling on the ground as they shrieked in agony. From the doors leading to the room, many other vampires had come to fight. Ari saw Gwen appear, ravenous, her eyes ablaze with anger. Undoubtedly they had come when they had heard their master’s scream. The combined terror of all three of the Ancients yells filled the room, though from the chaos came Lace’s scream, loudest of all, high pitched and terrified.
“James!” screamed Lace.
“We have to get Riley out of here,” said Ari, still glowing brightly.
There was no escaping her deadly rays and Ari raced to the table where Riley was tied, desperately pulling the binds free from her ankles and arms. The moment Ari’s burning fingers touched Riley’s skin, the girl sat up, staring wildly at Ari in confusion. Chris had only just managed to help Riley to her feet when something very strange happened. James had moved to stand protectively next to the Ancients and at the same time, thick black shadows seemed to pour from him, encasing the three vampires in a protective darkness that was impenetrable to Ari’s light.
Ari watched in disbelief as the look of horror on the Ancient’s faces faded into relief. They moved closer to James, their hands blindly groping to pull him nearer, as their faces settled into a triumphant expression. Ari grimaced as Lace slowly held her hand out towards the sunshine and smiled when the shadow that encased her body, moved with her, continuing to protect her.
“You think we would make the same mistake twice Ariana Sol?” said Lace, her voice a trembling mess. “You think we would be stupid enough to face you and your sunshine if we couldn’t protect ourselves?”
Ari sat there, staring at Lace in confusion. But before she could speak, Lace raced at Riley, her eyes almost blood red with hunger. Ari flung her hands up and stopped time. In an instant the Ancients froze, Lace only a few paces away from where Chris stood, cradling Riley in his arms. As Ari surveyed the frozen scene in front of her, she saw movement in the corner of her eye and looked up to see James Frater. Again Ari was shocked by his inability to be affected by her power, and without realising what she was doing, moved forward and over to where he was standing.
“It’s you,” she said, her curious eyes searching his face for any reaction. “You’re somehow blocking my powers. You stopped the Ancients from being affected by the sun just now. And…” Ari began to say.
“And I have done it before,” said James, an indifferent tone to his voice, almost as if he were bored.
“Before?”
“When you were in Latvia and froze the Ancients. I un-froze Ragon so that you could talk to him one last time,” James said, almost kindly, but then his eyes hardened and he added, “I thought perhaps that you might see reason and join us. But even after he told you that he didn’t love you, you were prepared to die… pathetic!”
Ari’s eyes widened and she knew that he was telling the truth. She remembered how she had been told by the Ancients that if she didn’t join them she would die, and had somehow managed to unfreeze Ragon. She had wanted desperately to talk to him, to ask him what to do, and he had unfrozen and told her to save herself. It all made sense; she had never been able to selectively unfreeze people… the whole time it had been James, not her.
“Who are you?” she asked, reaching out for his hand and grasping onto it firmly.
She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to touch him, but the moment Ari’s fingers wrapped around his wrist, she felt her palm burn, and looked down in surprise. James had looked down at his palm too and a second later, Ari saw why. Inscribed in his palm was the Grandor symbol, the intricate gothic sun and the four stars, all radiating from a woven circle.
“What are you-” Ari began to ask, but a sudden violent sensation swept over her and she dropped to her knees, while both her hands raced to her face.
She felt as if every neuron inside her head was firing all at once. There was no one single thought, but thousands of them, like a lifetime being lived in a single second. From the chaos of her thoughts, Ari slowly drew images into focus and she realised that she was having a vision. She saw the Ancients; all three reeked of decay, as if the flesh that clung to their body had long since lost any trace of life, yet their features were perfect, even beautiful. They were sitting on thrones in a room that was large and formed of pale sandstone. Ari recognised it immediately as their castle in Latvia. On the damp floor below them, an elderly lady was crouched low, and it was to her that they were addressing.
Ari looked at the obviously human woman and gasped. Her eyes were white and looked as if they were rolling into the back of her head. The old woman was quivering slightly, her back bent unnaturally as she tried to avoid eye contact with the vampires seated at the thrones. Now, as Ari looked at the elderly woman, a flash of another woman’s face, young and vivacious, came to her. She had seen this woman before, in a photograph shown to her by Lea’s grandmother. The photograph had been black and white, but never less capable of capturing the happiness in the woman’s once pretty face, and Ari heard Chiara telling her that this was Maureen, the witch who was capable of prophecy. It was then that Ari realised she was seeing the past.
“Tell us of the child,” said Lace, and in her hand was a silver blade that she toyed with menacingly.
Slowly Maureen sat upright, looking blindly around as she said, “Two will be born with the power to vanquish the immortals. Grandor has marked them and they will have powers of light and darkness. Neither shall be bound by the immortals curse, and both shall be free to choose their fate, and the fate of all mankind. From them the debt of Grandor’s greed shall be paid. The decision for light or dark, goodness or evil, shall be theirs and theirs alone.”
And then Ari’s vision changed. She saw a woman, young and beautiful, with light freckles lining her cheeks and bright blue eyes. She was screaming, her face almost as bright red as her hair, and it wasn’t until Ari was able to see past the sweaty curls that clung to the woman’s forehead, that she realised it was her mother and that she was in labour; her vision had taken her to the delivery room of a hospital. Then the vision went dark.
Her mother was now on the beach and a small child and man were with her; Ari’s father and older brother. It wasn’t a warm day but overcast, and the family of three were huddled beneath a large yellow umbrella. Cool wind rolled down the grainy sand hills, swirling around the family before settling near the shore. Slowly the three made their way to the water, as if desperate to enjoy their outing no matter the weather. For hours they stayed in the ocean, apparently so wrapped up in their joy that they hadn’t realised how long they had been there. It wasn’t until the dark orange of the setting sun was spread out across the water’s surface, that the couple realised how late it was.
By the time they had scrambled to the shallow of the water, Ari had already seen the dark shadow of an immortal making its way down to the beach, hugging the edge of the rock’s cl
iff, desperate to stay hidden from the fading sun. Ari watched in horror as the vampire dove off the highest point of the cliff, not coming up for air once, as it stalked its prey below the water.
It happened so fast that Ari barely had time to react. One moment the family were paddling to shore and the next, the baby in their arms had been pulled under the water. Immediately Ari looked away, unable to watch the frantic splashing and screams that followed, as Ari’s parents searched for their first born child. But as Ari turned back, she noticed something odd; a short way away, near where the steep cliff met the sea, the vampire who had attacked the child was climbing up the rock face, something small clutched in its arms, the baby… her older brother.
And then Ari’s vision took her somewhere cold and dark. A small cradle sat in the centre of large circular stone room, gently being pushed by a young woman, humming tunelessly to herself. A fresh bite mark stood out drastically against the woman’s pale skin, and she stood up quickly when the door was thrust open to the room.
“How is the babe?” a harsh voice asked, and Ari’s eyes widened in confusion, when she realised that it was Lace who spoke.
“Jamie is well,” the wet nurse replied, her eyes looking down adoringly at the child sleeping below.
“Do not call him that,” snapped Lace. “He is to be called James.”
The moment Ari heard his name, it was as if everything she had seen finally made sense. James Frater was Jamie; her brother who she had thought had died twenty-five years ago. Suddenly Ari was falling. It was an odd weightlessness, as if her body was disconnected from her mind.
When Ari’s vision ended, her eyes were wide with understanding. James was her brother! He was not affected by her powers because he was just like her, a Grandor Descendant. And he had powers of his own, powers which complimented hers. What had Maureen said? Grandor has marked them and they will have powers of lightness and darkness. Where Ari could kill vampires with sunlight, Jamie could protect them with shadows… it all made sense. It wasn’t her destiny to kill all of Grandor’s immortals. It wasn’t her destiny to fix Grandor’s mistake. He had given Ari and her brother the power to kill and to save. Ari’s mother had said that she needed to do what was right. In her heart, Ari had always known that killing every immortal wasn’t the right thing to do.
“You’re a Grandor Descendant too,” said Ari, staring up at James, while the rest of the people in the room remained frozen.
“What are you talking about?” James spat, looking at her in confusion, the mark on his hand now black but still visible.
“You’ve blocked it out,” she said, reaching for his hand again. “When I touched you before, I saw everything. You’re my brother; your name is Jamie. Our parent’s names were Sarah and George Hutton and when you were a baby, a vampire took you and bought you to the Ancients. Look, we have the same mark on our palms. It is the mark of our ancestor, Grandor!”
James was glaring at Ari, a look of disbelieving hatred plain on his face as he stared from the mark on Ari’s palm to the one on his own.
“Look,” said Ari, reaching for his hand desperately, hoping that like her, he might also have visions.
“No you look,” said James, and suddenly his eyes were dark, as if all previous trace of humanity had drained away. “I have tolerated you because your powers amused me. Clearly there is nothing special about you, other than a few simple parlour tricks.”
As James spoke, he was moving backwards, all the while keeping his eyes plastered on Ari. When he finally stopped, he was settled on the right side of Lace. He lifted his hand up and Ari gasped, as one by one the ancients unfroze.
“No wait,” said Ari, racing forwards. “They’ve tricked you; they killed our parents! They aren’t your family… I am! We have these powers because we are supposed to do the right thing. Protect the world. You have to believe me.”
“She lies,” hissed Lace, but there was a trace of fear behind her words.
In an instant Virgil had blurred behind Ari, reaching for her wrists and pulling them behind her back as he forced her onto her knees.
“Please,” Ari said, and when she looked up at James, her eyes were wide, though one remained blue while the other had turned a bright green. A single tear was rolling down her cheek and she reached out her hand imploringly to her brother. “Your powers mirror mine! Do you have visions? Touch my hand! You can see it all for yourself.”
“Kill her,” Lace said in a high cruel voice, and Ari felt the powerful hands of Virgil around her throat.
There was nothing Ari could say or do. Her hands flung to Virgil’s marbled fists and tried pathetically to prise them away but it was useless.
“Plea…” she tried to cry, but her words had failed her.
As her eyes began to blur in and out of focus, she looked down and saw the bracelet that Ragon had given her. The small silver letter J stood out; the symbol of her brother, twinkling at her almost lullingly. In an instant she had ripped it from her wrist and thrown it at James. With lighting reflexes he caught it. A second later and one of James’s eyes had turned blue, while the other remained green, and then everything went dark and Ari fell unconscious.
From the dark stretch of unconsciousness, Ari saw the same vision, played back in quick succession, but it did not end where it had before. Again she saw her mother but now she had changed. She was different, older, almost as if she had aged a lifetime in only a few short years. Ari’s father was next to her, their hands interlocking so that his golden wedding ring sat snugly next to hers. It was twilight and the pair pushed a stroller through a deserted pebbled street. As if sensing the imminent danger, the baby hiding beneath the pearl coloured blanket started crying. But it wasn’t the screams that warned Ari of what was about to come, her disbelieving eyes had rested on the baby’s blanket. It was the same blanket that the nuns at the grace Valley Orphanage had given her when she had been old enough to leave. It, along with the note that Ragon had left, was all that Ari had from her past, and as she stared down at the blanket covering the small child, she knew then that the vision she was having was of her own past. She was the baby crying beneath the blankets.
It happened in a second. There was no warning, no mercy, just the kill. Kiara lunged from the shadows. The attack was too fast for Ari to see Kiara’s face, but she knew from the long black hair that spilled around the vampire’s shoulders, that it was her. Ari’s father was killed first, in a single blow that knocked him far from the pram and onto the road. In an attempt to protect Ari, her mother had flung her body in front of the pram, as if willing her weight to be enough to shield its precious cargo. Kiara’s eyes were cat-like as she watched her, her head tilted as if such gestures of love were lost to her. With one hand Kiara grasped onto Ari’s mother’s throat and pulled her away from the pram. Ari’s mother fell backwards, her eyes locked onto Ari’s before they became large and round, and then lifeless.
And then another person appeared in her vision; it was Ragon.
“You think I would love you after this?” Ragon screamed, sweeping up the baby and keeping it as far away from Kiara as possible. “What? You steal some babe and think we can raise it together… that we would be a family?”
“Ragon,” Kiara hissed, her narrowed eyes settled on the child in his arms. “You can’t-”
“-you know nothing of love,” he said, racing past her and hitting her in the side of the face, before vanishing into the night, Ari still wrapped in his arms.
And again the scene changed. This time she was standing on familiar emerald grass, with a giant lake that stretched past as far as the eye could see. In the middle of the lake was the gnarled tree with its three distinct forms; the fates that ushered the dead beyond. Chris was by her side, as were her parents. They glowed golden like angels, and Ari heard her mother speak, just as she had before, but this time her sentence was not cut off by her disappearance.
“Mum, dad, please don’t leave me,” screamed Ari.
Ari watched her
mother smile; she had not seen this smile last time. When she had lived this moment in real life, her eyes had been so filled with tears that she must have missed it.
“You are not alone,” said her mother, “you have a brother. When you find each other, you will know what to do.”
From her vision of the past, Ari heard Ragon’s voice in the present, loud and scared. Her eyes opened slowly, dragging her from her visions, and though she still felt Virgil’s hands clasped around her throat, she looked up, seeing him emerge from a door at the back of the room, closely followed by the rest of the coven, Lea and… Ryder! Ryder was here; he had come back for them; he had freed the coven from their cells.
But the shock of seeing the coven arrive had only delayed Virgil, soon his hands were tight around Ari’s throat and everything went dark again. This time no vision of the past came to Ari, only the blanket of empty darkness.
Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Page 35