Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) Read online

  “It kind of feels like being reborn,” Ryder added, dragging Ari from her thoughts, “like everything before I became a vampire was just a story that I read.”

  “Have you spoken to your mum and dad since?”

  She knew the relationship between Ryder’s parents had not been perfect, especially since he had come out of the closet, but she couldn’t imagine that they would just let their only son disappear from their lives without so much as a phone call.

  “I told them that I was travelling overseas,” he said indifferently. “Patrick made me call them on our way over here so that they wouldn’t worry.”

  “That’s not exactly a long term solution.”

  Ryder shrugged and added, “Patrick says that in a few years we will stage my death. Apparently it is the most common way that vampires disappear, so that family and friends don’t search for you.”

  “But… how?”

  “I gather it’s not that difficult. Pat said that when a fledgling is ready to die, they request in their will that they are buried in a cemetery and then just wait and leave after the burial. He said that most vamps set up a trust fund that is in their family name and that way they can still keep their possessions,” he explained, “otherwise they leave everything to their maker and then get it from them later.”

  Ari felt her mouth open involuntarily in horror. How could Ryder be so indifferent at planning his own funeral?

  “But, won’t you be sad?” she asked.

  “I won’t really be dead Ari,” he said, a small gleeful smile sweeping across his handsome face.

  “No, I mean sad because you can’t see your parents anymore.”

  For the first time Ryder seemed to understand her; there was a shadow darkening his eyes that reminded her of the boy she had spent so many months with when she was a child.

  He looked at her, his blue eyes meeting hers and said, “Patrick says that when he was turned he had lost all of his family. That was the only reason he wanted to become a vampire. I think that is why he didn’t turn me right away. After the first night I met him, I asked him to turn me. But he made me wait; told me that I had to be sure what I would be giving up. He said he didn’t care that it would be breaking the Final Death Laws or possibly angering Nickolas and William; he just wanted me to be certain. I don’t think he understood why I would want to give up my family to become a vampire.”

  “What?” asked Ari, recalling the way she had been angered with Patrick, thinking that he had lulled Ryder and forced him to become a vampire.

  “Yea,” said Ryder, “he said that when he met his maker, Mark, that he would never have agreed to become a vampire if his family were still there. They were his rock. But when they died he had nothing left to hang onto, so he decided to take up Mark’s offer and become a vamp.”

  Ari let these words sink in. Even after hearing Ryder’s explanation, she still couldn’t imagine what being a vampire was truly like. How could you forget who your parents were, or stop caring for your loved ones? Though she had no memories of her mum and dad, she still fantasied about what they would have been like. Ryder had got to spend more than twenty years with his family, but after only a few months with Patrick, he was ready to let them go.

  For a long time Ari remained outside, even when Ryder had left. She was watching the barge’s progression through the sea. It felt oddly calming looking at the grey ocean; it gave her a sense of peace despite the anticipation that had been with her since discovering that none of her relatives were alive. More than being curious about the fact that she was the last living descendant of Mary Grandor, Ari felt sad. It was yet another reminder that she was alone.

  “We’ll be there soon. What were you and Ryder chatting about?” asked Ragon, startling Ari as he made his way towards her.

  “Just stuff,” said Ari.

  “Are you ok?” asked Ragon, his hand finding hers as he grasper her cold fingers.

  “Yea, fine.”

  “You know,” he said, turning to look out at the water, “it’s ok if you’re not.”

  “Not what?”

  “Not ok,” he replied.

  Ari’s head dropped at these words. Was she ok? No, no she wasn’t. Larissa was dead, the Ancients were after her, and she had discovered that she was related to a witch who had been burnt at the stake almost four hundred years ago. It defiantly wasn’t normal dramas she had on her hands. But she didn’t want to think about any of that right now.

  “Have you been there before?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “To the Pasteur Institute; yes many years ago.”

  “What’s it like?” she asked.

  “Just like any university, except for all the vampires.”

  “Yea, a vampire student body would tend to make it fairly unique,” she said sarcastically. “I wonder what type of clubs they have, probably not the usual football and volleyball teams. So, why is it called the Pasteur Institute?”

  Their conversation felt oddly formal. Ari knew, deep down, that she was distancing her true feelings from Ragon, afraid that he would overreact if he knew how she really felt about everything they had discovered. It felt wrong hiding her emotions from him, especially after everything they had been though together, but she didn’t want him to think that she couldn’t handle going to the Pasteur Institute. It might be the only place for them to the find answers.

  “It’s named after its founder, Louie Pasteur,” replied Ragon. “Perhaps you have heard of him?”

  Ari cocked her head to one side; who hadn’t heard of Louie Pasteur.

  “He was a vampire,” Ragon admitted.

  “What?”

  “Actually, had it not been for him, the entire vampire race might have been extinguished a couple of hundred years ago,” he explained.

  “Go on,” said Ari, appreciating the change in topic.

  “A few centuries ago, there was a huge vampire hunt. With the growing human population, many fledglings were made, and their inability to hide our existence forced us into the open. The humans could hardly ignore all the attacks on mortals and so we were hunted like dogs. It is from that time that many of the vampire legends were born. Louie Pasteur, who was a vampire, created the rabies virus from an extract of the vampire toxin. It mimicked many of our traits, making humans nocturnal, behave aggressively… even bite others. He then formulated the rabies vaccine and suddenly the hysteria was silenced, being blamed on a disease of the nervous system transmitted by animals rather than vampires. He went on to create the Pasteur Institute, where he made both the virus and the vaccine in mass quantities. It’s because of him that vampires are a thing of legends, seen mainly in Hollywood or romance novels.”

  Ari blinked a few times. She had learnt about Louie Pasteur in her biology classes during high school, although her lessons obviously had not included such an outrageous version of the truth. She smiled picturing her 11th grade science teacher, Mr Hall, whose devote Christian beliefs had prevented him from teaching them about evolution; if he only knew the truth about Louie Pasteur.

  “And there are records about vampires there?” questioned Ari.

  “Oh yea, Pasteur was the founder but there have been heaps of academics who have devoted years to understanding our, err, condition. Mainly the university is a front for research into vampirism, but there are very old records there, written pretty much since vampires have existed. And they aren’t all just about vampires; there has been a lot of research into witches and wraiths as well.”

  “Really?” said Ari.

  “Yea, we even have a journal; it’s called Varied Applied Myths Practised in Recent Era, get it, VAMPIRE.”

  Ari laughed.

  “They actually do some interesting research; I read a paper last year where they looked into the anatomical effects of the vampire toxin,” he said, not betraying a hint of sarcasm.

  Ari nodded slowly, uncertain if Ragon was being serious or not. Thinking about scientific journals, she wondered if now might be a g
ood time to mention her hopes for continuing to study vet. Surely after everything she had been through, Ragon would not begrudge her some semblance of a normal life. She was just about to ask whether or not the Pasteur Institute offered vet science as a program, when Ragon spoke again, driving away all thoughts of broaching the topic.

  “Tell me my love,” he said, squeezing her hand, “are you sure you’re ok? I can tell, I mean, I can feel your distance.”

  “We’re standing right next to each other.”

  Ragon smiled and said, “You know what I mean. I could tell that you were upset about what we found out at the Lancaster Titles Office, and I saw the way you reacted last night to what Sandra said. But you shouldn’t feel like you don’t have any living relatives, I mean the coven… we’re your family now.”

  Ari sighed, taking in a long breathe as she said, “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to seem, distant, it’s just a lot to process. I kind of always hoped that I had a family searching for me or looking out for me.”

  “I was always looking out for you.”

  “I know,” she said, reaching up to kiss him once on the lips, “that’s why I love you. I’m just being stupid. What do you think about all of it? Do you really think that what I can do might have something to do with the Grandor constellation we read about? It just seems to… bizarre, that out of all the star constellations we could look up, we randomly see one that has the name Grandor.”

  Ragon scoffed, immediately shaking his head before saying, “I don’t know; there’s no doubt that you have some, unusual skills, but I don’t think that it is as simple as you being a witch. I mean-”

  Suddenly a loud horn sounded and Ragon and Ari both looked up at the captain’s quarters.

  “Looks like were here,” said Ragon, moving over to the edge and peering out into the distance. “Don’t worry. I promise you we will find out why you can do the things you can. You know, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Ari nodded; Ragon was right, it wasn’t like she was alone. She had Ragon and the rest of the coven. They were her family now.

  The Isle of Man was not at all as Ari had expected it to be. When the ferry had docked, she stared up bemused at a large banner that read, ‘Withersoever you throw it, it will stand.’ Underneath this were two birds, one black the other white, and in between them were three legs all coming from a central point. Below the banner, a metal sign was erected. Ari had just enough time to read that the Isle of Man was 572 square kilometres and situated in the Irish Sea, before she was bustled by Ragon towards a car rental booth.

  As Ragon organised a SUV for the coven, Ari looked out past the ferry, to where many large commercial fishing boats were docked. Even though the day was bitterly cold and the fog swept over their boats, there was an overwhelming sense of urgency amongst the men who worked the docks. They were all shouting at each other, apparently unheard by the crashing of waves against the harbor, and moved with such haste that it made them appear as if they were late for something.

  “So how far away is the campus?” asked Ari, as the seven of them filed into a blue SUV Ragon had rented.

  “About an hour drive inland,” said Clyde, reaching from the back of the car so as to turn the radio on; immediately a news report, spoken by a man with a strong Irish accent, blasted through the speakers.

  Ari, who was in the front passenger seat, had only fleetingly heard the broadcaster talking about a wayward bear, who had apparently attacked several citizens, before she tuned out to the news report and instead watched the scenery blur past. They had driven along the esplanade of a small fishing town first; almost all the houses backed onto the sea, each accommodating a boat of some sorts, while their yard appeared to be filled with nets and traps. Soon the houses had begun to thin, replaced instead by rolling green hills, which stretched as far as the eye could see, occasionally punctuated by rock formations, jutting out of the earth.

  Though Ari had never been to Scotland or Ireland before, she couldn’t help but draw parallels from how she pictured these countries to be, to the Isle of Man. The whole place looked like a scene right out of a Lord of the Rings movie, and there was a distinct loneliness and isolated feeling to the place. She guessed this was why the vampire community had decided to set up a university there, that and the fact that it was apparently overcast 365 days of the year- perfect vampire conditions.

  It was at least half an hour since seeing the fishing village, before they drove past the next town, if you could call it that. The few cottages, for they were certainly not traditional houses, that lined the street, were ancient looking, as if they had been erected before the invention of concrete. An old school yard, which looked as if no child had crossed its path for many years, seemed to be the focal point of the town. It came equipped with a very run down oval, half the size you would normally see; no longer was the grass cut short, but in its disuse had become a marsh of thick emerald tall reeds.

  The only building Ari saw which even remotely resembled anything to which she was use to back in Australia, was a hospital. It looked as if it had only recently been built, perhaps in the last 20 years or so. Again she saw the same Isle of Man symbol as before- three legs coming from a central point, though in front of this was a large white cross. Next to the cross, written in bold writing, was the sign, ‘Pasteur Hospital- funded by the Pasteur Institute since 1999.’

  Ari thought it odd that the university had invested so much money into a health centre, especially considering the local school was so run down, as to be obsolete. Craning her head to keep the hospital in focus, Ari saw a large bulletin board which read, ‘Free Flu Vaccinations Coming Soon’ and underneath this, ‘Stay Safe this Winter During Bear Season.’

  For the next fifteen minutes, the only thing that Ari could see was a large forest. The road which Ragon drove on seemed to have been placed smack bang in the middle of it. The branches of many large conifers and oaks were edging past the road, so that they formed an arc, entirely blocking out the already heavily filtered sunlight, so that as they drove, it almost appeared to be night time.

  “We’re almost there,” said Ragon, though Ari couldn’t see anything at all that pertained to a university campus.

  They had driven towards what looked like the entrance of a construction site. There were a few bulldozers and even a large crane, not to mention many piles of bricks and other haphazardly placed building materials. Many surly looking workmen, all wearing yellow vests and hardhats, stopped to stare as the coven’s car passed them.

  “The Uni must be getting a new facility,” said Clyde, “odd place for it.”

  Ragon did not slow as he passed the workmen; instead he pointed past the construction site, to an enormous stone sign which read, ‘Pasteur Institute.’ Beyond this, just in the distance, Ari could finally make out the university.

  Ragon circled the campus once, pointing out the different faculties that were discernible from the road.

  “Those are the halls of residence,” he said, pointing at three separate buildings, above which the words Cruor, Omega and Delta were etched in their stone faces. “And that is one of the libraries; I think the art and history one. And over here is the sports fields and-”

  “-what’s this one?” Ari said interrupting him, pointing to single level building at the far side of the campus.

  She had been attracted by a large red and white logo, depicting a snake which wrapped around a cross. She had seen a similar symbol at the University of Brisbane’s Animal Clinic, and hoped that it meant that there was a veterinary clinic on campus; a sure sign that the university offered vet science as a program.

  “That’s the, err, vet clinic,” Ragon admitted.

  “So they offer vet science here?” she asked, trying to keep her voice indifferent.

  Ragon didn’t respond, except to speed past the building.

  “And this,” said Ragon, pulling the car up to a small parking lot and pointing at a relatively new looking concrete building, “is t
he administration. God I am starving.”

  “And this,” said Clyde, putting on his best mocking tone as he and the rest of the coven clambered out of the car, “is a parking lot… we park cars here.”

  Ari frowned but Ragon ignored him, instead turning to face Thomas.

  “She is expecting us?” asked Ragon.

  “I told Victoria that we would be coming,” Thomas replied.

  When Ari and the rest of the coven entered the administration office, Thomas took the lead and directed them to a large reception area.