A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) (6 page)

“Ragon,” Ari breathed, careful to keep her voice low
.

Ragon didn’t answer her at first. He had landed cat-like on the floor and was looking wildly around the room for any sign of movement. He was wearing all black, giving him the appearance of a handsome cat bugler. The black beanie which hid his hair, did not steal from his bright green eyes, which surveyed the room slowly. When he glanced at Paige’s cell, he cocked his head to one side, but then he stood quickly, apparently satisfied she had not heard him.

“Are you alright?” he whispered, placing his fingers through the bars of Ari’s cell.

Again there was a kindness to his voice, almost tenderness.
Ari nodded quickly, though she felt her eyes well with tears when Ragon scanned her exposed body. His face darkened when his gaze hovered over the steel bracelets and neck collar.

“What did that bitch...” he started to say, but then forced himself to look away, instead
re-focusing his efforts on trying to bend the steel bars, though they would not give, “I’m going to get you out of here.”

Despite the iron bars creaking, they did not break.
When he withdrew his hands, small flecks of rusted metal covered his skin and he brushed them away angrily.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered
.

There was an equal measure of self-loathing and guilt in his voice, though Ari knew that the blame for what had happened fell on her, not him. Ragon warned her not to leave his house; he told her that someone might hurt her to get to him, but she had not believed him. 
 

“Why are they doing this to me?” she asked, her eyes dancing between the door to the room and Paige, wanting to make sure that Ragon was not discovered.

Ragon sighed deeply. 

“She made me…” he began to say, but then looked over at the main door to the room, his eyes bulging. “I will come back for you,” he whispered, and then vanished through the vent in the ceiling.

Ari watched him leave in disbelief, and a second later the door to the main room was flung open and Matthew walked in. Ari couldn’t stop the tears that fell freely; Ragon’s presence had allowed her to be tempted with thoughts of freedom and escape, but now as she saw Matthew, all hope was lost. 

“It really is a shame I have to kill you,” said Matthew. “You could have kept Paige company.”

At his words Paige had woken, and she looked up at Matthew lovingly, sweeping her hair behind her ears as she sought to make herself more presentable.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Ari.

Matthew’s face contorted with rage.

He blurred towards her, tearing the key from its chain around his neck and said, “Kiara doesn’t like Ragon having pets. Though I am not sure you are a source at all; why there are no bites on you-”

As M
atthew spoke, Ragon dropped silently to the floor behind him.

“
-master,” cried Paige, her finger outstretched as she indicated Ragon.

Before Ari had time to respond, Matthew spun around and pulled Ari’s cell door closed. At the same time there was a loud slam and Ari looked up to see Kiara walking into the main room.

“Welcome,” said Kiara, her high cold voice bouncing around the room and making Ragon stop dead in his tracks.

Kiara stood framing the door, staring in disbelief at
Ragon. Ari couldn’t help but gasp when she saw how beautiful Kiara was- beautiful and yet terrifying. This had been the first time Ari had been able to see her. Kiara’s pale complexion stood out drastically from the deep red shade of lipstick she wore to cover her full lips. She had a slender nose, which was almost entirely lost to her large dark eyes. Two perfectly shaped eyebrows overlooked these black pools, and a long fringe danced just above them, while lengths of perfectly straight dark hair lashed out around the edge of her oval face.

“You don’t look happy to see me,”
said Kiara, batting her long eyelashes furiously at Ragon. “I was so confused to hear that you had a girl with you, that you had left that filthy mausoleum and bought a house…”

“What do you want?”
asked Ragon.

Ragon’s voice was like ice; it sounded nothing like the kind whisperings and promises he had made only moments ago. It reminded her of the night she had been attacked, how Ragon had said ‘pathetic’ to the boy who had tried to rape her and
then again when he had spoken about killing them, without remorse, without any trace of humanity.

“
Want?” exclaimed Kiara. “What do I
want
? Nothing more than what you have already promised me; you swore you sought a solitary existence.”

“Promised?” asked Ragon, forcing the word through his teeth as
his fists clenched by his sides. “I promised you nothing. You have haunted my shadows since you made me, and… and-”

“
-and, and what? You don’t deny it?” shrieked Kiara, before breathing in deeply and adding in a much calmer manner, “You know I had Paige search this blood bag for bite marks. I thought perhaps that you took a liking to her taste after so long of swearing off innocent blood, and decided to make her a source, but… but there was not a mark on her.”

Kiara
had begun to circle Ragon, while he bent down low, preparing for her to strike.

“The girl
means nothing to me,” he said, his eyes not meeting Ari. “I only just took her; I had no time to command her, let alone drain her.”

Ari’s face fell and she shuddered; Ragon’s voice was so hollow, so devoid of all feelings. Did he mean what he had said? Had he be
en planning to kill her after all? And yet why should she be upset to hear this? Ragon was a vampire; he had killed people; it shouldn’t surprise her to find out that he had wanted her blood all along.

“Well
if you do not care for this one, then you won’t mind if Matthew kills her,” said Kiara, inclining her head towards Matthew, whose face broke into a knowing smile.

“No!” screamed Ragon, looking up in horror at Ari.

When Ari met his gaze it was pained even terrified; his eyes were wide like saucers and his mouth was open slightly. 

“So it’s true?”
asked Kiara; she was looking at him with a dazed expression. “Why would you risk breaking a Final Death Law for a mortal?”

“You don’t unde
rstand!” Ragon shrieked.

“Well, let me do
us all a favour by removing that little conundrum,” said Kiara. “Matthew… Kill her!”

“
Wait!” cried Ragon, “Let her go; I’ll… I’ll do anything.”

Kiara paused
, her eyes flittered to Ragon’s retched face but this did not console her, on the contrary, she was glaring at him worse than ever.

“Your promise
s mean nothing to me,” she hissed. “You are… different. I can hear it in your voice.”

In an instant Matthew had blurred forwards, lifting Ari up by the elbow as he wrapped his fingers around her throat.

“Please,” cried Ari, her eyes wide with fear as she felt
her windpipe crush under pressure.

“NO!”  Ragon roared, blurring to Kiara and hitting her hard in the face.

Kiara’s body fell heavily to the ground and Ragon raced to Ari’s cell. He grabbed the bars, ripping the door from its hinges in an ear splitting screech of tearing met
al. Matthew had just turned to confront him, but Ragon was too quick; he hit him savagely in the back with both fists, so that Matthew crashed to the ground.

“Ragon,”
whispered Ari, her voice hoarse from where Matthew had strangled her.

Tearing his eyes away from her, Ragon reached down and hit Matthew again,
pulling him up by his collar and aiming a hard blow at his head. Ari watched as Matthew’s face seemed to break, like stone under pressure, so that thin lines cracked down his normally perfect skin. At the same time Paige raced inside the cell, kneeling down beside her fallen master.

“Leave him,” said Ari
, but the girl ignored her and began shaking Matthew violently, desperate for him to wake up.

“We have to go,”
said Ragon, looking quickly back to where Kiara lay, still unconscious.

“But…” Ari began
to say, holding her bound hands out to Paige.

Ragon
looked down at the young girl and shook his head. Before Ari could argue, he had bent down, placing his head under her bound hands, so that she hung in front of him. Finally he lifted her legs and cradled her as best he could. He did not pause, or try to recover his strength, but ran.

Ari watched from Ragon’s arms as Paige began clawing at her own wrist with her nails. Soon blood swelled from the scratches and Paige pressed her hand against Matthew’s lips. Two white hands pulled Paige’s closer as Matthew regained consciousness.

“No,”
screamed Ari, seeing the smile on Paige’s face falter as Matthew took both blood and life from her.

As Ragon raced away,
Ari managed one last glimpse of Paige; the girl was crumpled and lifeless on the floor, white as a sheet. Matthew’s hands bent out at odd angles and he threw Paige away. Then he stood and moved like lightning after them. Ragon had just enough time to throw the door to the main room shut and blur away, before they heard loud pounding on the other side.

Still locked together, Ragon and Ari had barely reach
ed the edge of Kiara’s property when they heard an infuriating scream come from the house.

“How dare you!” Kiara screeched.

Ragon didn’t stop to look back but kept running. When they reached a large brick fence lining the property, Ragon paused and then leapt over it in a single bounce. In that instant, Ari had seen Kiara standing in the entrance of her house as she shook with rage. As the pair locked eyes on one another, Kiara glared, but then looked up at the sky in frustration and recoiled back inside.

All the way home, Ragon ran, still cradling Ari in his arms. She had slowly begun to slip from his hands, though her bound
wrists wrapped around his neck kept her in place. It was still dark, though the sky was beginning to lighten, and all around them were the chirps of awakening birds, as a pale orange light broadened on the horizon. As Ragon ran, he hugged the forest line of Mount Cootha, keeping them away from the prying eyes of morning joggers or any cars that might have been on the road this early. This was fortunate; Ari still only wore her underwear and the sight therefore of a man carrying a half-naked woman, bound around his neck, would have drawn unnecessary attention to them.

S
oon Ari could see Ragon’s house from the street and smiled.

They had just reached the driveway when Ragon’s legs gave out and
he fell heavily onto the gravel. Ari was thrown from him and crumpled on the harsh stones, the wind knocked out of her. She laid still then gasped for air. Looking desperately at Ragon, she frowned; he looked completely broken.

“Get inside,”
he croaked. “Lock the doors.”

Instan
tly Ari was on her feet; she was half way to the door when a bright golden light from across the valley caught her attention. She squinted up at it, watching as it crept across the driveway, realising finally that it was the sunrise. The warm rays shone brightly down on her, bringing a sense of comfort, until a loud, blood curdling scream punctuated the air.

The
sunshine singed Ragon’s skin, exposing scorched burnt flesh. He struggled to his feet but then fell back weakly, trying to hide his face from the light as it blistered. Ari watched him in confusion, and then the words he had spoken flooded back;
we don’t do well in sunlight
. Ari hesitated, watching as Ragon’s body contorted in the light. Looking down at him, she didn’t see the monster which had killed those boy’s, she only saw the mystery man from the library; the man with the bright green eyes who had caught her attention, time and time again, sitting on the couch by the stairs as he read.        

“What are yo
u doing Ari?” she asked herself, as she raced to Ragon and began dragging him back towards the house.

It took her a while to pull him inside. Her hands were still bound but she just managed to clasp onto him and gain enough momentum to pull. As soon as they were inside, she raced to each of the windows, pulling the heavy curtains closed so as to block out as much sunlight as possible, before remembering that they had UV protection. When finally she was sure that there was no light seeping through any cracks, she bolted the front door behind her and collapsed onto the floor next to Ragon, panting heavily from her efforts.

Ragon’s
body was smoking a little, his beanie burnt and singed, and she laid her cold hands against his unusually hot skin, thinking that perhaps it might soothe the burns. Without realising it, her head dropped slowly onto Ragon’s chest, just as a strange floating feeling replaced the fearful terror that had been with her for what felt like hours. She blinked a few times, staring up at the bland ceiling. Soon her mind began to feel disjointed from her body and she slipped into unconsciousness, one hand resting over Ragon’s silent heart.