Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) Read online

  The room was deathly silent after this proclamation and both Ryder and Patrick became confused looking, glancing around desperately for even the slightest form of recognition of this seemingly wonderful news.

  “You know, as in soldiers wearing uniforms,” explained Patrick, holding his hands open, as if this information would surely supply the final key for the entire room’s enjoyment.

  “Is their going to be a war?” Clyde asked sarcastically.

  “Now really isn’t the time,” said Ragon, gesturing obviously at Clyde and Riley.

  “Well of course now is not the time,” said Ryder, oblivious to Ragon’s hint. “The soldiers won’t be here until tonight. And no, there is no war. Apparently a naval ship is docking here. Tonight the campus club is going to be swarming with our nation’s finest, adorable and most handsome warriors, who will more than certainly have their blood pumping, if you gather my drift,” he added, winking at Ari.

  “You know, I think you would look amazing in a uniform,” purred Patrick, staring longingly into Ryder’s eyes, as if he had entirely forgotten they were in a room full of onlookers.

  “Maybe later,” Ryder cooed back, laughing wickedly to himself before skipping out of the room, with Patrick following just behind him. “Make sure you’re there!”

  Ari watched the pair leave, her mouth slightly open in astonishment. She had known Ryder since she was a child. Back then he had been her foster brother, but she had only stayed with him and his parents for a few months before they had returned her to the Grace Valley Orphanage. Last year during the Elder’s Halloween party she had reunited with him. At the time she had been stunned to discover that he was a source, serving Nikolas and William. She had managed to convince Patrick to ask the Elders if he could keep Ryder. At the time she’d hoped that after the Elder’s lull had worn off he would get disassociated and be free from the crazy vampire world. Patrick however had other plans for him; he had fallen head over heels for Ryder and offered to make Ryder his fledgling, and Ryder had jumped at the prospect of becoming an immortal.

  It was strange how Ryder and Patrick’s situation mirrored that of hers and Ragon’s in so many ways, and yet in others, it was entirely different. Ryder had been contented, if not ecstatic at the prospect of becoming a vampire, while Ari was hesitant and afraid. At the end of the day, she just didn’t know if she wanted to become one. Newly turned vampires, fledglings, were uncontrollable and blood thirsty, and then there was the other big problem, her destiny as the Grandor descendant.

  Ari was a descendant of the first witch and she had certain powers that had been concentrated down her family line, all for the purpose of ridding the world of vampires. It was only a few months ago that she had discovered that she was a Grandor descendant. Part of her was relieved to know why she could stop time, see into the future and burst into sunshine, but this knowledge came at a price. Ragon, her boyfriend, was a vampire, and doing anything that might hurt him was a price she would never pay. Ari wasn’t even sure that she would be able to become a vampire, even if she wanted to. Vampire toxin didn’t work on her the same way it did with other humans; she could not be lulled or dissociated.

  “You know what,” said Ragon, breaking Ari from her train of thought, “I think it would be good for us to go out tonight. We have been cooped up in here for weeks now. Clyde, when was the last time you fed?”

  Clyde looked over at Riley protectively and said, “It’s been a while.”

  “It would be nice to get out,” said Riley, smiling appreciatively at Ragon.

  It looked as if Clyde was about to argue but before he could speak, Ari cut in.

  “So it’s settled? We’re going to the campus club tonight,” she said excitedly, pushing her study notes aside.

  That night Riley, Sandra, Lea and Ari all got ready together. Much to Riley’s dismay, Clyde had gone out that day and under cover of the ever present clouds, purchased her a long sleeved and particularly ugly full length, burgundy dress for her to wear.

  “So what’s the occasion?” asked Lea, her mouth open in concentration as she stroked a few layers of black mascara to her eye lashes.

  “Ryder and Patrick-” Sandra started to explain.

  “-Ryder and Patrick thought it might be nice for us to all grab a drink at the campus club,” Ari finished, looking down at her feet, apparently trying to decide if the shoes she was wearing matched her outfit.

  Lea, who was now applying a thin layer of eye-liner, did not appear bemused by Ari’s sudden interruption, and Ari sighed in relief. She had not wanted Lea to know why Ryder and Patrick were so excited to go to the campus club. Lea was a witch, and like all witches, she did not approve of vampires feeding off mortals. But it wasn’t just that. For the past few months the coven had been on red alert following the disappearances of several students. It had been Lea and her circle of witches to notice that so many humans had vanished.

  The laws of vampires, the Final Death Laws, enforced three laws which all vampires had to follow: mortals shalt not know of the vampire existence; thou shalt not kill another vampire; thou shalt not suffer a waere to live. In all other societies where vampires lived, killing humans and drinking their blood was all part in parcel of regular life. But here, at the Pasteur Institute, the vampires were encouraged not to kill the students, not out of concern for their welfare, but because such a large population of vampires killing every-day, was sure to draw unnecessary attention from human law-enforcers. As killing humans was not a clause in the Final Death Laws, the action of doing so could not be punished by death, but it was still something that the Vice Chancellor tried to discourage.

  Normally the vampires on the Isle of Man treated the students as sources, stealing their blood and then lulling them to forget ever having been bitten. No one could understand why therefore, so many students had gone missing as of late. It didn’t make any sense. None of the missing student’s bodies had been discovered, rather they had simple disappeared. It was the lack of bodies which most concerned Lea’s circle. Vampire victims were normally taken to the Pasteur Hospital, so that their death could be blamed on wildlife, like bears.

  After seeing Sandra’s addiction to blood candy and her subsequent blood lust, Ari thought that the increasing occurrence of this addictive drug, might account for so many students deaths. The only hole in this theory was that using blood candy was not illegal; neither the Ancients nor the Elder’s seemed to care at all that the drug had been growing in popularity, even if it did make vampires volatile. This meant that while it was plausible that a vampire using blood candy may have accidently killed students, it didn’t explain why their bodies were missing. It was because of all the missing students that Ari hoped to avoid telling Lea why they were going to the campus club tonight. She wasn’t eager to advertise to Lea, that Ryder and Patrick were so excited at the prospect of so much fresh blood coming onto the campus.

  “Ok, so what do you think?” asked Riley, indicating her outfit as she stepped out from behind the wardrobe door, where she’d been getting changed.

  Ari had to supress a frown. Either Clyde was being particularly over protective or he was just being plain mean. The dress Riley donned looked as if it ought to have been worn by a woman in her fifties, not twenties. The silk clung to Riley’s hips and stomach, which in her present ill state, gave her an unflattering potbellied appearance.

  “You look lovely,” Lea said finally.

  Riley turned to look at Sandra, clearly waiting for her opinion, but a sudden loud knocking at the door stole all the girl’s attention and Sandra raced over to answer it. When Sandra swung the door open, Chris was standing there.

  “Well, are you going to invite me in?” he said. “Oh no wait, I don’t need to be invited in, that’s a vampire thing!”

  Ari laughed. Since the battle with the blood hunter, the tension between the coven and Chris had entirely vanished, though that had not come without costs. During the battle, Chris had been killed, and his brief stint on ‘th
e other side’, had made him think that he had heard someone or something warn him about shadows. Though Chris had confided this to Ari following their battle, he had not spoken of it since, and Ari had not brought it up again. When Chris had told her this, Ari had been afraid that Chris’s death had leached his spirit away. She knew all too well the effect of wraith magic on people who had been dead for too long. Larissa had been no more than a shell of her former self after she had been brought back from dead.

  “So, where are we going? I definitely feel a few drinks are in order before our first clinical rotation, hey Ari? You did hear what they said about Dr Fellow, didn’t you? In fact, if half the rumours are true, then it might be worthwhile to bring a hip flask to the clinic tomorrow,” said Chris, moving to sit down on the bed.

  “Drinking while practising veterinary medicine,” mused Sandra, “I don’t know if that’s a good combination. But, then again, it couldn’t make you any worse a vet.”

  “Vet student,” Chris corrected her, “the leeway is far greater.” He stopped then, having just noticed Riley. “Dear god! What are you wearing?”

  Riley’s previously smiling face dropped into a frown.

  “Riley honey,” said Sandra, “don’t you listen to this dog. His idea of style is a fur coat.”

  Ari didn’t miss the double meaning behind Sandra’s joke and broke into laughter again. Chris was part wraith, on account of his father being a wraith and his mother being human. Mostly wraiths had dominion over the dead, but a few had also been involved in the waere persecutions, and thus were able to shift into animals. Chris’s ancestors were among those involved. Consequently Chris could change into a dog, in particular a husky.

  “Oh, sticks and stones,” said Chris, wiggling his finger playfully at Sandra. “You still haven’t told me where we are going?”

  “That’s probably because you aren’t going with us,” said Sandra, moving over to Riley and helping to adjust the hideous dress. “Alright, alright, alright,” Sandra added, when Chris coughed loudly, “we’re going to the campus club. If you hurry and get dressed, I suppose you can join us.”

  “Get dressed?” asked Chris, holding his shirt out indignantly and turning to face Ari. “Is there something wrong with what I am wearing now?”

  Ari, who was still laughing at the pair, shook her head quickly, until Sandra glared at her in disbelief, causing Ari to say, “Um… yes?”

  It took longer than usual to get to the campus club. Riley, who despite her swollen ankles from spending the last few days in bed, had insisted on wearing heels to offset the unattractive dress that Clyde had bought her. This had meant the group had to walk at a tediously slow pace. By the time they finally got to the club, Ryder and Patrick were already talking animatedly at the bar, while Thomas, Ragon and Clyde waited in the outside courtyard, looking sulky and unsociable.

  The moment that Riley moved towards them however, Clyde jumped to his feet and took her carefully by the arm, saying, “You’re not sitting out there in the cold and with all those smokers. What part of you’re sick, don’t you understand?”

  Riley rolled her eyes but did not argue, and allowed Clyde to steer her inside the club.

  “You look ravishing,” Ragon said in a whisper, standing to greet Ari.

  “As do you my dear,” Thomas said admiringly to Sandra.

  “Lea, you look absolutely splendid old girl,” said Chris, before laughing as he and Lea also joined the table. “You know what, we all look great!”

  Just then Patrick and Ryder emerged from the club, handing out drinks to everyone from a large black tray. Ari took the drink offered her and downed in quickly. Ragon looked at her sideways, before offering her his own glass, which she took gratefully and sipped at, this time more leisurely.

  “I seem to recall you making a promise to yourself at the end of last semester. Something about wanting to pass all your subjects without having to use vampire connections to get you resits,” said Ragon.

  “Yea, well, tomorrow is different. It’s not an exam, exactly. We are just following a clinician around the vet hospital,” Ari explained.

  “Besides,” said Chris, “today is technically our last day of holidays, so we aren’t really doing anything wrong.”

  It looked as if Ragon were about to argue but just then Ryder hopped up and down excitedly, squealing as he said, “They’re here!” and gulped down his drink quickly.

  At that exact moment a group of men walked into the club. Even without their crisp white naval uniforms and crew cut hair, it was obvious from their military stance, that they were soldiers. They were straight backed, with grim smiles on their faces.

  “I see mine,” said Patrick, pointing dramatically at a tall thin man with short blonde hair.

  Ryder narrowed his eyes but his disappointment vanished almost instantly, when the group of sailors moved close to where they were sitting. Casually Ryder backed towards them, grinning to himself mischievously.

  It happened so casually that had Ari not known any better, she might have thought that it was a genuine mistake. One minute one of the officers was walking past their table, and the next, Ryder was accidently bumping into him, knocking the sailor’s glass out of his hand, so that it smashed onto the floor, spilling its contents over the bricks beneath.

  “Oh, my, gosh!” Ryder said dramatically, holding his hand to his chest as he looked down mournfully at the splayed ice on the floor. “I cannot believe that just happened. My apologies. Please I insist, let me buy you another drink.”

  The soldier Ryder had bumped into looked down at the broken glass, seemingly upset, but on hearing Ryder’s overt apology, nodded briefly and began moving back to the bar.

  “And that’s how it’s done,” Ryder whispered to the table, before winking and following the man to the bar.

  “Seriously?” said Lea, looking at Ryder with her mouth open. “He knows I’m a witch, right?”

  “We all know you’re a witch,” Chris said laughing, until Lea shot him a dirty look.

  “Speaking of witches,” Thomas whispered under his breath, “is there any more news about the missing humans?”

  Lea paused, her eyes darting around the club, clearly wanting to make certain she would not be overheard, before whispering, “The circle hasn’t found out anything new. We’re hoping that when a new Vice Chancellor has been appointed, they will put a stop to all this craziness with blood candy and missing students. I mean, they can hardly pretend that students aren’t going missing.”

  “Hmm,” said Sandra, leaning forwards. “So you think the two are linked?”

  Lea shook her head slowly, saying, “We don’t know what to think. We know that blood candy takes away vampires self-control and that it’s been getting more and more popular here. I mean, it is a plausible theory.”

  “Well,” said Sandra, looking suddenly uncomfortable, “it’s just that, well, why would the vamps get rid of the bodies like that? Even if they are on blood candy. It’s not illegal to take it, and, like you say, it’s getting more and more popular. I swear half of Cruor is on it, and they all can’t be hiding bodies somewhere.”

  “Well, even if the blood candy isn’t behind it all, a new Vice Chancellor won’t be able to ignore the fact that students are disappearing. Pretty soon someone from the police department is going to realise. Besides, it makes sense that vampires are behind it, so it stands to reason that the Elders or Ancients, or whoever, should be doing something about it” said Lea, then seeing the hurt look on Sandra’s face, added, “I mean, like, bad vampires are behind it. Oh, you know what I mean.”

  “So you think that the new Vice Chancellor will get to the bottom of it all? Funny, we haven’t heard about a new Vice Chancellor yet. I would have thought the Ancients would have appointed one by now. There’s usually always an Elder in vampire populated places,” said Sandra.

  “Yea, it’s all very odd. That’s why my circle are looking into it. And you asked around at Cruor halls,” Lea went on, “no on
e knows anything about missing students?”

  Leaning forwards, Ragon shook his head and said, “I didn’t exactly put it in so many words, but I made out that I had accidently killed a source and needed to find a way to make them disappear, but no one had any real suggestions for me. Just the usual, make it look like a bear attack, take their body to the hospital, you know.”

  Lea frowned and said, “But we have looked in all the obvious places. The circles even performed tracking spells on the missing students. It’s literally like they have vanished.”

  “Would a tracking spell work on a body?” asked Thomas. “I mean, assuming the missing students are dead?”

  “It should do,” said Lea, though she didn’t look entirely convinced.

  “And the circle is alright with you telling us all of this?” asked Ari.

  For the past few months there had been a lot of tension between Lea and her circle. Lea had betrayed them by protecting Ari, something they had not been thrilled about, that and the fact that Lea was on speaking terms with vampires, the natural enemies of witches.